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MONT PELEE 






THE TRAGEDY OF MARTINIQUE 




Photo. Heilprin 



PELEE IN ERUPTION— AUGUST 24, 1902 
The entire crater working 



MONT PELEE 



AND 



THE TRAGEDY OF MARTINIQUE 



A STUDY OF THE GREAT CATASTROPHES OF 1902, WITH 
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD 



BY 

ANGELO HEILPRIN 

PRESIDENT OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA 

Vice-President of the American Alpine Club ; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of 

London ; late Professor of Geology at the Academy of Natural Sciences 

of Philadelphia, etc. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS LARGELY TAKEN 
BY THE AUTHOR 



PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OP 
CONGRESS, 

Two Comes Reo&ves 

DEC. 23 1902 

CnwweHT wnrr 

DLA8« £>XXei No. 

U- P £» x *■} 
OOFY B. { 



Copyright, 1902 
By J. B. Lippincott Company 

Published January, 1903 






ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 



'V 






TO 
PROFESSOR EDUARD SUESS 

PRESIDENT OF THE IMPERIAL 
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VIENNA 



PREFACE 

In presenting to his readers the following pages dealing 
with one of the most noteworthy, even if lamentable, inci- 
dents in the world's history, the author feels that he must 
do so with the apology that the work is only partly done. 
The magnitude of the phenomena that are associated with 
the Pelee eruptions, and the obscurity in which many of 
the facts pertaining thereto still remain, will necessitate 
further research before the episode can be made fully 
known in all its relations, and probably some of the con- 
clusions here set forth will have to be modified in the light 
of future investigations. But the history as it stands may 
be considered measurably complete, and it has the advan- 
tage, at least, of being based largely upon personal observa- 
tion. 

The author's two visits to Martinique were made after 
an interval of three months, in the latter part of May and 
again in August, and during these times he enjoyed unu- 
sual opportunities for the prosecution of his work. The 
pleasing courtesies of the people of Martinique helped 
largely to whatever of success was obtained, and contributed 
a degree of comfort in labor the absence of which would 
have been sorely trying. During the later visit it was the 
author's privilege to be a close witness of the second great 
death-dealing eruption of Mont Pelee, and he had thereby 



viii PEEFACE 

the marked advantage of being able to make his investiga- 
tions in a newly-culled field. 

The author feels himself under obligation to many, on 
and off the island, who in one way or another proffered 
assistance, and to these collectively he extends his thanks ; 
but the history of personal travel would not be complete 
without a special acknowledgment being made to his friends 
of Vive, Assier and Trinite, who neglected no effort to 
insure comfort to himself and to his associates. These are 
MM. Fernand and Joseph Clerc, Lagarrigue cle Meillac, 
Teliam de Chancel, and, not least, Mile. Marie de Jaham, 
the affable hostess of the Clerc establishment. A special 
expression of thanks is also due to M. Louis des Grottes, 
of the Habitation Leyritz, United States Consul Louis H. 
Ayme, whose many kindnesses brought a ready introduction 
of the author to the island, and M. Ivanes. 

The illustrations that accompany the work are largely 
from photographs taken by the author himself, and many 
of them represent, in a way that has probably not been 
possible before, the consecutive stages in the paroxysmal 
eruption of a very active volcano. Other photographs were 
obtained through the kind permission of Messrs. Under- 
wood & Underwood, of New York, whose representative 
in Martinique was for a while associated with the author in 
his studies of Mont Pelee. 

Angelo Heilprin. 
Geographical Society of Philadelphia, 

December, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER ' PAGE 

I. Impressions of Martinique 1 

II. Saint Pierre and its Euins 16 

III. The Cataclysm of May 8 35 

IT. Days of Pear and Trembling 60 

V. The Last Day of Saint Pierre 73 

VI. Vicar-General Parel's Chronicle 85 

VII. After the Conflagration 109 

VIII. Vesuvius and Pompeii — A Parallel 121 

IX. Across the Island to Assier 140 

X. To the Storm-Cloud of Pelee' s Crater 151 

XL The Geography of Mont Pelee 166 

XII. Pere Mary, Cure of Morne Eouge 189 

XIII. Clouds of Passage 197 

XIV. A Second Visit to Martinique 208 

XV. Battling with Pelee 216 

XVI. A Night of Illumination, and the Destruction of 

Morne Eouge and Ajoupa-Bouillon 227 

XVII. The Soufriere of St. Vincent and the Afterglows .. 244 
XVIII. The Volcanic Eelations of the Caribbean Basin. . ..257 

XIX. The Phenomena of the Eruption 271 

Appendix 319 

Notes 329 

Index 333 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATES 

PAGE 

Pelee in Eruption — August 24, 1902. ...... .{Frontispiece) 

1. The Pitons du Carbet with Pelee's Ash-Cloud in the 

Distance 4 

2. Street-Sweepers — Fort-de-France. 8 

3. Saint Pierre and Mont Pelee 16 

4. Along the Eoxelane — Saint Pierre , . . . 20 

5. The Eed-Tiled Boofs of Saint Pierre 30 

6. Eue Victor-Hugo, May 14, 1902 ....... 38 

7. Cathedral of Saint Pierre . . , 46 

8. Cathedral in Euins — Saint Pierre , 58 

9. Fac-Simile of First Page (Last Issue) of Les Colonies. 68 

10. Saint Pierre in Euins 80 

11. Mud-Flow of May 5 88 

12. The Silent City 110 

13. Bodies in Basement of House 124 

14. A Martinique Pastoral — Assier 140 

15. Evening G-low on Pelee's Pennant 150 

16. Great Ash-Cloud Turning Day into Night 160 

17. On the Volcano's Devastated Slope 168 

18. The Majesty of Pelee's Inferno 180 

19. The Morne de La Croix 188 

20. A Deluge of Boulders 204 

21. Morne Eouge and Pelee. 218 

22. Before a Shrine — Morne Eouge 230 

23. The Darkening Cloud of June 6 244 

24. The Enveloping Ash-Cloud of June 6 256 

xi 



xii 1LLUSTEATI0NS 

PAGE 

25. Pelee in a Paroxysm, June 5 266 

26. Towering and Mushroom-Shaped Clouds 274 

27. A Cocoanut-Gatherer — Assier 282 

28. Pelee "Smoking" prom the New Fragmental Cone 288 

29. The Heavens Aglow, May 26 294 

30. The Issuing Blasts prom the Crater 304 

31. Progressive Development op an Eruption 312 

32. Progressive Development of an Eruption 312 

33. Approaching Climax op Eruption 318 

34. Ash-Cloud Three Miles Overhead ; Ash-Cloud Eising 

prom the Crater 318 

35. A Sudden Blow prom the Crater 326 

36. The Devastated Eegion op Martinique (Map) 337 

TEXT 

Fort-de-France and the Pitons du Carbet 3 

In the Savane of Fort-de-France 7 

Martinique Woman 12 

The Forest Solitude 15 

The Theatre — Saint Pierre 18 

Eue Victor Hugo — Saint Pierre 23 

The Cathedral of Saint Pierre — August 23, 1902 28 

Pelee in the May Eruption 40 

Iron Bridge across the Eoxelane — Saint Pierre 49 

Cable Chart of the " Pouyer-Quertier" 55 

Eecovered Cable Strand Enveloping Branch of Tree 57 

Opposite the Eiviere Seche 68 

Basse-Pointe — May 30, 1902 79 

Thrown Statue of " Our Lady of the Watch" 98 

Saint Pierre Burning 108 

Eue Lucie — Saint Pierre 131 

Burial- Vault — Saint Pierre 133 



ILLUSTKATIONS xiii 

PAGE 

Bodies on the Terrace Eoad 137 

Eefugees on the Eoad — Grande- Anse 143 

Street Scene — Lamentin 148 

Ash-Cloud of Pelee — From near Assier 154 

A Burst from the Crater 163 

Basin of the Lac des Palmistes and the Shattered Morne 

de La Croix 171 

Pelee Smoking from Fragmental Cone 179 

On the Eoad to Morne Eouge 19i 

The Bomb-Scarred Slope of Pelee 221 

The " Eoraima" Burning 226 

Saint Pierre and Mont Pelee in 1766 270 

The Island of Martinique 328 



MONT PELEE 



THE TRAGEDY OF MARTINIQUE 



IMPRESSIONS OF MARTINIQUE 

My first view of the unhappy island whose misfortunes 
have so deeply roused the sympathies of the world was in 
the early morning of the 25th of May, two and a half 
weeks after one of the greatest tragedies recorded in history 
had been enacted on its shores. The Fontabelle was then 
steering her course close in shore, but it was not until we 
had passed the nimbus of the great ash-cloud that Pelee 
was throwing out to sea that we began to distinguish the 
features of recognizable land. The island in front of us 
was not a tropical paradise, but a withered piece of the 
earth that seemed to be just emerging from chaos. Every- 
thing was gray and brown, sunk behind a cloud which only 
the mind could penetrate ; there was nothing that appealed 
restfully to the eye. 

The landscape was barren as though it had been graven 
with desert tools, scarred and made ragged by floods of 
water and boiling mud, and hardly a vestige remained of 
the verdant forest that but a short time before had been 



2 IMPBESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 

the glory of the land. Great folds of cloud and ash hung 
over the crown of the volcano, and from its lower flanks 
issued a veritable tempest of curling vapor and mud. 
Lying close to its southern foot, and bathed in the flame 
of a tropical sunshine, was all that remained of the once 
attractive city of Saint Pierre — miles of wreckage that 
reached up from the silent desert of stone and sand, show- 
ing no color but the burning grays that had been flung to 
them or that had formed part of mother earth. 

We entered the harbor of Fort-de-France shortly after 
eight o'clock, and took our place beside the white flank of 
the Suchet, whose work in the catastrophe of the 8th had 
made it famous among its craft. Two other men-of-war, 
their sheets drooping from the foreyards like linen in a 
Neapolitan passaggio, were also sweltering under the genially 
tropical sun, with schools of gars and dog-fishes swirling 
about their hulls. The city did not at this time impress 
me as being particularly concerned in the havoc that lay 
so close to its doors. It being the Sabbath day, the busi- 
ness streets wore the usual dress of pleasurable inactivity, 
and only in the savane, or open square, and in and about 
the hotels, was there anything to remind one of a serious 
life. Uniformed members of the army and navy, city and 
state officials, black and white, newspaper editors, scientists, 
and others were gathered around in groups, discussing the 
two important topics of the day — the elections that had 
recently been held and the possibility of Pelee's activity 
invading the city. The volcano itself is not visible from 
the lower part of Fort-de-France, but its great white cloud, 



IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 3 

whose towering at all times attracted the attention of some 
eyes, helped to keep it in evidence, and supplied a never- 
failing ferment for conversation and argument. 

I took lodgings in a promising location at the inner end 
of the green which surrounds the statue of the Empress 




Photo. Heilprin 

FORT-DE-FRANCE AND THE PITONS DE CARBET 

Josephine, and where my room opened up on tiled roofs 
and circling corridors, and the distant flowing curls of the 
volcano. The hotel was disorganized and the service gone, 
but for this. Pelee was properly held responsible, for its 
recent eruptions, especially that of May 20, had created 
a degree of consternation among those who did not permit 
themselves to believe that security was assured by distance 



4 IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 

which could be realized only by those who had lived 
through the recent occurrences of the unfortunate island. 
It required but a warning to set the population in panic, 
and many thought it a wise precaution to place themselves 
where warnings were not a necessary prelude to a peaceful 
living. 

Fort-de-France, which is now, after the destruction of 
Saint Pierre, the most important centre of population in 
the island of Martinique, occupies part of the northern 
face of one of the best harbors of the Lesser Antilles, and 
is backed by the heights of Carbet on the north. It lies 
close to the water's edge, with only two to five feet level 
between it and the surface of the sea, and thus invites to 
itself a form of catastrophe which has more than once 
visited other parts of the island. On the night of the 
great eruption of August 30, the sea rose close to the 
outer border of the savane, directly abreast of the main 
hotel. The lower parts are built on made ground, and it 
is, therefore, with just fear that the people look to a pos- 
sible ras de maree. 

The city has little to show for itself as a municipium 
of nearly eighteen thousand inhabitants, the seat of govern- 
ment, and the depot of naval and military stores. Until 
the conflagration of 1890, which destroyed its major por- 
tion, it was built chiefly of wood, but since that time stone 
and rubble form the principal materials of construction. 
The only conventionally interesting sites or locations are 
the city green or savane, hardly cared for but ornamented 
with a number of stately and regenerated royal palms ; the 



IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 5 

allees of rubber, tamarin and giant sabliers (Hum crepi- 
tans) ; the cathedral, and the shedded market, where may- 
be observed at close range the faces of all nationalities 
known to Martinique, and a Babel of voices heard at 
nearly all hours of the day. 

Beyond this there is little to attract, although many 
interesting phases and pictures of life can be picked up by 
those seeking new impressions, especially along the banks of 
the picturesque, even if not wholly pure, Biviere Madame. 
Apart from the H6tel-de-Ville, there is no commanding 
edifice of any kind, whether official or private, and the 
shops that aspire to a degree of worldliness are few in 
number. With scarcely an exception, the streets of the 
city are narrow and have the restricted sidewalks that 
belong to most tropical cities of this class. Each has its 
own surface-water, serving as a store to those needing it 
and as an expurgator of accumulated and accumulating 
filth. 

The houses are chiefly of rubble and plaster or stucco, 
with pitched roofs, and the greater number are of two or 
three stories. There are few among them that can lay 
claim to architectural effect, and they lack wholly the 
attractive features that belong to Spanish and Mexican 
houses. On the surrounding heights, where many of the 
wealthier people reside and enjoy fresh air, there are 
residences of finer pretence, and some of these are charm- 
ingly inviting in their garden approaches. The focus of 
social life of the city is the savane, with its bordering allees, 
and the great expanse of unadorned grass. Here, late in 






IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 



the afternoon of almost every day, may be seen what there 
is of the fashion and wealth of the city, the little gather- 
ings of French men and women, their promenades, saluta- 
tions and dress, recalling in miniature the life of Europe. 
Necessarily, these gatherings are only of nutshell dimen- 
sions, and however they may partake of the atmosphere of 
true France, they give one only the feeling of being exiled, 
for the life that surrounds is foreign in every way. 

Four-fifths, or more, of those whom one sees are yellow 
or black in color — mixed Creoles, mulattoes, negroes, and 
coolies — the true Martiniquians, if one chooses to call them 
such. Except about the hotels and as representatives of 
the government, army and navy, white men are in evi- 
dence merely as points of reference. Nearly all the 
municipal offices, from the lowest to the highest, are filled 
by representatives of the colored or black race, and the 
same holds measurably true of the offices held under the 
rule of the government. One of the two regular jour- 
nals of the city, La Colonie, is edited and published by a 
man of color ; the librarian of the Bibliotheque Schoelcher 
is likewise colored. The condition existing at Saint Pierre 
at the time of its destruction was different. It was the 
city, par excellence, and it housed the wealth and aristocracy 
of the island. 

Hearn, in one of his brilliant color pictures of the 
peojole, characterizes them as being a population of the 
"Arabian Knights," many colored, but with yellow as 
the dominating tint. He invests them with a glory that is 
not at all times theirs, but on the whole they are kindly in 






IMPEESSIONS OF MAKTLNIQUE 7 

spirit, the women, more particularly, graceful and dignified 
in bearing, and both sexes sufficiently alive to the recogni- 
tion of their worth. The men do not differ radically from 
other negro and mulatto types that are distributed through- 




IN THE SAVANE OF FORT-DE-FRANCE 



out the south, except that they are softer in character and 
more gentle in their ways, an inheritance, doubtless, of 
French associations. It is different with the women, who 
appear immediately as a race apart. Of unusual height, 



8 IMPEESSIONS OF MAKTINIQUE 

supple and straight as their royal palms, these proud 
products of Martiniquian soil at once arrest attention ; and 
while one could readily challenge the contention that they 
are the " fairest of the fair," it may be admitted that some 
of their types are imperiously attractive, and that a voice 
more beautiful than theirs or one better qualified to charm, 
cannot be found as a quality belonging to any other 
race. 

In striking contrast to the degree of unattractiveness of 
its capital city, is the island of Martinique itself. Situated 
in a quarter of the globe where nature knows no limit to 
her work, and where the tares and stubble of erratic 
growth have not yet developed sufficiently to deface, it comes 
to the eye, save where desolating death has latterly laid its 
hand, a picture of charming loveliness — peaceful but ex- 
uberant. Its gently swelling outline does not remind one 
of the crags and cliffs of Capri, of Ischia and of other 
Mediterranean islands ; nor do its heights recall the nearer 
mountains of Cuba, Jamaica or Porto Rico. The landscape 
is that of the Lesser Antilles, diversified in its own way, 
and breathing its own atmosphere. Dominica, near to it, 
has perhaps most of its fine nature, and St. Kitts sur- 
passes in quiet repose ; but the unfortunate French island, 
now writhing in the coils of the dragon that wrought its 
earlier fabric, has a charm of its own, which its neighbors 
have failed to cultivate, or which, with them, has, perhaps, 
already ceased to exist. 

It may not be difficult to find islands that are more 
beautiful, more winsome, than Martinique, but it is less 







Underwood & Underwood, Stereos. Photo., New York, Copyright, 1902 



STREET-SWEEPERS OF FORT-DE-FRANCE 
The Savane 



IMPEESSIO^S OF MABTINIQTJE 9 

easy to find one that is quite its equal. It has the softest 
of summer zephyrs blowing across its fields and hillsides ; 
swift and tumbling waters break through forest and plain ; 
and mountain heights rise to where they can gather the 
island's mists to their crowns. There are pretty thatched 
cottages, nestling in the shade of the cocoanut, mango and 
bread-fruit, and decked out with bright hibiscus and Bou- 
gainvillea ; and fields of tobacco and patches of coffee and 
cacao, added to bright cane, tell of a degree of prosperity 
that most of the other islands do not have. 

Seen from the sea, the island rises up into a series of 
bold or even rugged prominences, with hanging slopes of 
beautiful woodland, and fields of sugar-cane running into 
their midst. The lesser heights swell up like huge camel- 
humps from the confused landscape, giving a charming 
background to the village sites that lie about them. During 
the middle hours of day obscuring clouds generally hang 
over the mountains, but in the early morning the summit 
cap of Pelee, the loftiest eminence of the land, can generally 
be seen dominating the landscape. 

Until within the last few years the forest-primeval 
clothed the mountain slopes from base to summit, but to-day 
little remains of the true grands bois. A woodland of ex- 
quisite luxuriance, and showing the distinctive features of 
a tropical vegetation, may still be seen and felt along the 
deep waterways of the interior ; but the hand of man has 
been steadily wiping out the glories of wild nature, to put 
in their place the more humble picture of cultivation. 
Fields of brilliant cane lie in the south, in the east and in 



10 



IMPBESSIONS OF MAETINIQUB 



the north, and from their product the island returns most 
of what wealth it has to its inhabitants ; and still humbler 
plantations of cassava, bread-fruit and banana surround the 
domestic cottage. 

Martinique is the second in size of the group of beauti- 
ful islands known as the Caribbees, and lies four hundred 
and ten miles due north of the main mouth of the Orinoco 
River. Its softly rugged heights, and somewhat loftier 
elevations, the mornes, rise from an almost immediate depth 
of water of four to six thousand feet, and have for their 
nearest neighbors Dominica on the north, and St. Lucia on 
the south, each separated off by a billowy sea of twenty to 
twenty-five miles. Nearly the whole of the island, except 
where in local patches the coral-animal has built up its 
reefs, is of volcanic origin — the soil, the hills, the stream- 
boulders all bearing testimony to the action of volcanic 
forces which were in operation thousands of years ago. 
We possess no positive information of any eruption having 
disturbed its surface prior to 1792, when, in the month of 
January, a feeble activity, comparable to that of August, 
1851, gave indication of the life that still rested within. 
The present active point of the island is Mont Pelee, a 
mountain of only Vesuvian proportions, whose broad foot 
defines nearly the whole north shore. 

Rising to four thousand two hundred feet, or somewhat 
higher, its summit dominates the whole island, save where 
the line of sight is cut by the bold and hardly less signifi- 
cant peaks or Pitons of Carbet — ancient volcanic knobs 
three thousand nine hundred and sixty feet in elevation — 



IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUB 11 

that lie north of Fort-de-France. History records no ac- 
tivity on the part of these mountains, nor from the still 
conical Vauclin in the south. 

Though so important among its neighbors, Martinique 
is hardly more than a garden-spot, for it covers less than 
four hundred square miles, and the greater part of it could 
be packed into the area that is covered by the first city of 
the United States. Lying well within the tropics, it has 
all that a resourceful nature provides, and man has done 
much — not too much, some will say — to improve what 
nature has left undone. He has cut beautiful roadways 
through meadowland and forest, around cultivated fields 
and gardens and on the seashore cliffs high above the 
surging waters. He has removed most of the forest, and 
put in its place the cultivated field. Wherever we turn the 
eye, it falls upon a peaceful living, and there is little to re- 
mind one that man may be in want, and that the necessaries 
of life are not justly distributed. But withal, the island is 
not wholly a paradise, for it has had its earthquakes, its 
cyclones, and its inundations ; and now must be added to its 
unfortunate assets the most destructive volcanic outburst 
that has ravaged any one region. The earthquake of 1839, 
which wrecked one-half of the capital city, Fort-de-Frauce, 
and cost the lives of no less than four hundred people, is 
still a part of modern history ; but the terrible cyclone of 
August 18, 1891, which blotted forty hamlets from the map 
of the island, lies much nearer to our own day. It is, in- 
deed, remarkable, seeing how numerous in the past have 
been earthquake disturbances of one kind or another, that 



12 



IMPEESSIONS OF MAKTINIQUE 



the late volcanic cataclysm should have been so nearly free 
of seismic movement of any kind. 

In this island world of three hundred and eighty square 
miles there lived before the eventful 8th of May one 
hundred and ninety thousand people, or five hundred to 




MARTINIQUE WOMAN 



every square mile — about the same number to the square 
mile as is found in England and Wales, and two and a 
half times that in France. The number now living has 
been lessened by about a sixth. Though not quite so de- 
spairingly wrecked as some of its sister islands, Martinique 



1MPEESSI0NS OF MAETINIQUE 13 

shares in their decadent misfortunes. Capital is lacking for 
new enterprises, and energy wherewith to obtain capital. 
The production of sugar and rum, with its small mar- 
gin for profit in some parts, and the absolute loss en- 
tailed in the cultivation of the cane elsewhere, remains the 
chief industry of the island, and were it not for the ex- 
treme fertility of the soil, and the fact that a small and in- 
dependent living can still be made from patches of earth 
that have not yet been bonded to sugar-estates, the land 
would soon go impoverished in the way of the other beautiful 
islands of the Lesser Antilles. As it is, despite its many 
misfortunes and vicissitudes, Martinique remains a com- 
parative garden-spot, and the eye falls with delight upon 
the pieces of cultivation — of banana, bread-fruit, cocoanut, 
cassava, and Carib cabbage — that lie about on the hill- 
sides, in the hollows, and along the roadside, and give a 
living to thousands who have no work beyond their garden 
palings, and hardly more within them. 

M. Bourgarel, in the Economiste Europeen, notes that 
of the area of the island now under cultivation — forty- 
seven thousand hectares out of a total of ninety-eight thou- 
sand — approximately twenty thousand are given over to 
the cultivation of the cane, which is little more than it was 
in 1867 (eighteen thousand five hundred and sixty-five). 
From that year until 1886, when the sugar crisis materially 
checked the prosperity of the island, the development of 
the cane-growing industry was steady for nearly every year, 
the hectareage finally reaching twenty-eight thousand four 
hundred and fifty. At this time, therefore, compared with 



14 IMPEESSIONS OF MAETINIQUE 

what it was at its maximum, sixteen years ago, the industry- 
has fallen short by almost exactly thirty per cent. ; and 
now, with the devastation that has taken place in the 
northern section of the island, where are situated many of 
the most thriving plantations and some of the largest 
usines of the colony, and the added uncertainties of work 
that necessarily follow such a storm, the product will be 
reduced very much further. It may be that this condition 
will in the end work to the advantage of the island, for 
it is certain that it is capable of rising to other industries 
that, in the present condition of the sugar problem, must 
yield more largely in profit, and open the way to a material 
progress which confinement to a single enterprise cannot 
permit. 

Martinique, though well supplied with excellent interior 
roads, which place its different locations in easy union with 
one another, is entirely lacking in the means of rapid com- 
munication. Excepting the small private roads, that op- 
erate individually in the different plantations, there is not a 
line of running railroad, whether steam or electric, on the 
entire island. Inland transportation and carriage are had 
by means of an antiquated coach-service and by individual 
porterage, both men and women being willing servants to 
this form of labor. The heavy, lumbering ox-cart, with its 
double-yoked team, is still a part of the scenery of the 
Martinique roadway, and may remain such, so far as 
present indications point, for some time still in the future. 
The modernizing of the island, while it has brought with it 
a certain number of " improvements" — the electric light, 



IMPEESSIONS OF MAKTINIQTJE 



15 



telephone and telegraph — leaves many things still un- 
touched, and fortunately among these, the desecration of 
the landscape. This will continue charming, and with it 
the soft atmosphere that gives it color. 




Photo. Heilprl 



THE FOREST SOLITUDE 



II 

SADTT PIERRE AKD ITS RUIN'S 

Lafcadio Hearn, in his work on the West Indies, 
gives the following description of the city he knew so well : 

" The quaintest, queerest, and the prettiest withal, 
among West Indian cities; all stone-built and stone-flagged, 
with very narrow streets, wooden or zinc awnings, and 
peaked roofs of red tile, pierced by gable dormers. Most 
of the buildings are painted in a clear yellow tone, which 
contrasts delightfully with the burning blue ribbon of 
tropical sky above ; and no street is absolutely level ; 
nearly all of them climb hills, descend into hollows, curve, 
twist, describe sudden angles. There is everywhere a loud 
murmur of running water, pouring through the deep gut- 
ters contrived between the paved thoroughfare and the 
absurd little sidewalks, varying in width from one to three 
feet. The architecture is that of the seventeenth century, 
and reminds one of the antiquated quarter of New Orleans. 
All the tints, the forms, the vistas, would seem to have been 
especially elected or designed for aquarelle studies. The 
windows are frameless openings without glass ; some have 
iron bars ; all have heavy wooden shutters with movable 
slats, through which light and air can enter." 

Saint Pierre, which at the time of its destruction was 
the most important commercial town of the island of 
Martinique, was also the earliest French settlement on the 

16 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 17 

island, having been founded by Esnambuc as far back as 
1635. It lay on an open roadstead, without harbor advan- 
tages of any kind, and directly appressed to the southern 
foot of Mont Pelee. Its position relative to the destroy- 
ing volcano was very similar to that which Herculaneum 
and Pompeii bore to the ancient Vesuvius. The early 
establishment of the settlement, its beautiful position, and 
the fact that it was the natural outlet to one of the rich- 
est cane and cacao districts of the island, doubtless led 
to its supremacy over every other location, and made the 
absence of a harbor a matter of secondary importance. It 
was the home of the bankers, merchants and shippers. 
Many of the largest planters had seasonable homes here, 
and had built beautiful villas along the height of Morne 
d'Orange, the Peduits, and Trois Ponts. Out of a total 
population for the city proper, 1 as reported in the census of 
1894, of nineteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, 
probably not less than from five thousand to six thousand 
were whites. Indeed, some who profess to have known the 
city well, assert that the white population could not have 
numbered less than eight thousand, — or more than is 
contained in the capitals of most of the Lesser Antilles 
collectively. Saint Pierre is described as having been a 
city of gay and open life, and with a moral tone perhaps 
considerably lower than that of most tropical cities. How- 
ever this may be, it is certain that the city was the 
attracting focus of the island, and to it gravitated all 
classes of the island community, especially those who had 
been favored by fortune's wheel. It is sometimes referred 



18 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS KUINS 



to as the most beautiful city of the West Indies, but apart 
from its charming location and the manner of its construc- 
tion, in rising tiers lined to the surrounding heights, there 
would seem to be little to justify this extreme idealization. 




THE THEATRE— SAINT PIERRE 



Although boasting of a number of stately, even imposing, 
edifices, such as the cathedral, town-hall, military hospital, 
club and theatre, and several attractive promenades and 
squares, the city, as Hearn describes it, was in the main 
old-fashioned, with narrow streets, stone and stucco houses 



SAINT PIEEEB AND ITS EUINS 19 

of two and three stories, and steeply pitching roofs of red- 
tiling. It was closely pressed together so as to keep out the 
tropical heat, and had the benefit of abundant shade-trees 
both in the public ways and the numerous house gardens. 
The streets were lit by electricity, as they are to-day in 
Fort-de-France. On the heights outside of the main city, 
especially along the valley of the romantic Poxelane, the 
better-to-do had erected charming villas, and embellished 
their sites with gardens of luxuriant vegetation. The 
wrecks of some of these still remain, sufficiently to show 
their attractive features. Saint Pierre was the educational 
centre of the island, and its Lycee was diplomated with the 
rank of similar institutions in France. One of the most 
notable institutions of the city was the botanical garden, 
near the foot of Mont Parnasse, which at one time had the 
enviable reputation of being the most beautiful of all the 
lesser botanical gardens of the tropics. Many of the 
plants of tropical cultivation in the famous Jardin des 
Plantes of Paris had been obtained from this garden. Of 
late years, however, the Saint Pierre garden had been but 
indifferently cared for, the arboretums had run to wild 
jungle, exquisitely beautiful in the wealth and exuberance 
of tropical vegetation, while the science of cultivation was 
being but little attended to. The lovely waterfall remained 
as the chief attraction to the people. 

Along its ocean frontage, Saint Pierre had a length of 
about two miles, extending from the Anse north of Carbet 
to beyond the Roxelane River. Its parts were respectively 
designated the Mouittage (towards the south), named from 



/ 



20 SAINT PIERRE AND ITS RUINS 

the place of debarkation and landing ; the Centre ; the Fort, 
north of the Roxelane ; and the Trois Ponts, situated along 
the latter river and east of the Centre. The Mouillage 
was dominated by the abrupt height, constructed of ancient 
lava or basalt, known as the Morne d'Orange, along whose 
sea-face the road from Carbet descends. 

The picturesque rock-bedded Roxelane, whose source is 
in the southwestern slopes of the Pelee buttress, traversed 
the city in its northern quarter, and was crossed by a num- 
ber of bridges, two of which, both of them apparently firm, 
still span the lower course. Above it, on hanging walls, as 
it were, were located some of the most attractive villas of 
the wealthier classes. Beyond the Riviere-des-Peres on 
the north followed the suburb of Fonds-Core. The foci 
of the active and social life of the city were the Mouillage 
or landing, with its hundreds of casks of sugar and rum ; 
the savane or city green ; the Place Bertin ; and the Rues 
Victor Hugo and Bouille. A single line of cars helped 
the city to rapid transit. 

When I visited Saint Pierre towards the close of May 
and in early June the weather was very hot. The sun 
beat down with intense energy, and we wondered how the 
city could have maintained its favor with the Martiniquians. 
Situated on the leeward side of the mountains, the site 
lacks wholly in the advantage that is offered by the trade- 
winds to the locations on the east coast. There were also 
few public gardens and breathing places, which must have 
contributed much to the discomfort of the summer inhabi- 
tants. It was this that made Morne Rouge, only four miles 




ALONG THE ROXELANE— SAINT PIERRE 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS KUINS 21 

distant, the resort of Saint Pierre. Charmingly located at 
an elevation of fourteen hundred feet above the city, on a 
ridge uniting Mont Pelee with the contreforts of the Pitons 
de Carbet, and looking down over both the Atlantic and 
Caribbean waters, it received the softening winds from the 
east, and gave to its inhabitants in a tropical clime the 
blessings of a temperate region. Morne Rouge is said to 
have housed at times not less than from two thousand to 
three thousand people coming from Saint Pierre. 

On the evening of August 30, when Mont Pelee again 
swept out its fiery tongue, and laid to waste one of the 
most charming spots in the whole island of Martinique, 
Morne Pouge met the fate that overtook Saint Pierre. The 
city was wiped out, and the greater part of its population 
annihilated. Besides the church, whose noble spire still 
rises mockingly over the blighted landscape, only a few 
houses remain ; gardens and woodland were swept out of 
existence. In the place of all this is a desert — perhaps 
more soft than that of Saint Pierre, but reading the same 
history. 

The traveller who to-day visits the site of Saint Pierre 
sees hardly more than a mass of tumbled ruins. Where 
before were the Rue Victor Hugo, with its rows of two- 
and three-storied, pitched-roofed shops and residences, and 
the Pue Bouille, are heaps of concrete and boulders, piled 
three and five feet, and more. The Place Bertin is known 
by what remains of its fountain, and by the prostrate trees 
that have stretched themselves in parallel lines to the south. 
Tier after tier of rubbled bulwark rises up to the surround- 



22 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 

ing heights, but above, as well as below, there are only 
ruined walls, with heaps of decay lying between them. 
Not a roof remains to indicate that any habitation ever had 
a cover ; not a chimney to recall the cheer and welcome of 
the fireside. The eye follows long lines of half-standing 
walls, more like the arches of ancient aqueducts than parts 
of buildings, the greater number to-day running parallel 
with the ocean front. There is little that rises above two 
stories, and hardly anything to half that level. Flats of 
ash rise up here and there to what may have been roof 
corners, elsewhere the covering is so light that the old 
paving-blocks come to the surface. At intervals bits of 
polished mosaic paving appear through the ash, showing 
where attractive house gardens had been located ; stone 
garden-posts and flower-stands lie about, and with them 
fragments of decorative railing. The old club bathing 
establishment is still there with water in its basement, but 
its broad nights of steps, with the great flower-vases stand- 
ing on either side, lead only to heaps of broken stone and 
mortar. We see the great palm that stood in the court of 
the Saint Pierre Club, but only as a charred stump rising 
from its garden of desolate debris. These and other land 
marks help to frame a picture of the city which seems 
destined never again to rise from its ashes. 

When I visited Saint Pierre on the 25th of May, five 
days after the second great eruption, the color of life had 
been entirely driven from it. Everything was gray or of 
the color of baked and mudded earth, little different from 
the stern landscape which adjoins on the north and north- 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 



23 



east. There were no pinks, or yellows, or blues that give 
the life to habitations in the tropics. Save for the small 
ants that were already beginning to crawl about and recon- 
struct for themselves new homes, the ruins gave out no 




RUE VICTOR HUGO— SAINT PIERRE 



evidence of the living, whether of man, of beast, or bird. 
An impressive silence, disturbed only by the human scaven- 
gers who were prowling about for observation and study, 
prevailed everywhere ; and not even the angry volcano to 
the northeast, with its hurling clouds of mud and ash, 



24 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS KUINS 

interfered with the general quiet of the scene. Compared 
with Pompeii, Saint Pierre appeared ten times more ancient. 
The green and fertile slopes of Campania, with their nest- 
ling cottages and cultivated fields, are here wanting ; they 
existed once, and not many days before, but they had 
passed for the time. These make modern even an ancient 
field. In Pompeii the eye has had restored to it the special 
activities of man ; he reads the life of the household, hears 
the clamor of the market-place, follows the debate in the 
Forum, and gambles on the wheels of the chariots as they 
whirl around the circus field. In Saint Pierre, for those 
who have not known it before, there is nothing of this. 
Though its walls are modern, though everything that per- 
tains to their construction and everything that has been 
found within is modern, the city itself looks as though it 
had been deserted at a time when man was still prepared 
to be a wanderer, long before the beautiful sculptures of 
Pompeii had been carved, long before the paintings had 
been put on walls to charm and adorn. 

For two miles or more the ruins continue ; you know 
the streets by their standing walls, you recognize some of 
the houses by what the walls still carry. Here is the cor- 
ner of the cathedral, there the municipal building, and 
farther to one side the wall of the military hospital. Only 
a few days before it still bore the clock, with the hands 
marking eight 2 minutes of eight, which told the precise 
time at which the catastrophe took place. 

We followed clumps of charred tree-trunks along what 
was the ocean promenade, and from them passed to the 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS POJINS 25 

square or Place Bertin, where, in the shade of its lofty 
trees and around its attractive fountain, the populace met 
for recreation and business. What is there to-day ? Great 
tree-trunks stretched in line, their branches buried in dust 
and turned almost to coal, their roots pointing to the moun- 
tain that brought such devastation. 

We found twisted bars of iron, great masses of roof 
sheathing wrapped like cloth about the posts upon which 
they had been flung, and iron girders looped and festooned 
as if they had been made of rope. We climbed over and 
under ruins, over roofs and into cellars, and everywhere 
was the same lifeless quiet. Great heaps of rubbish lay 
on all sides of us, and on every side they bore evidence of 
the terrible force that laid them low. We seemed to be 
wandering through a city that had been blown from the 
mouth of a cannon, and not one that had been destroyed 
by any force of nature. 

Yet stranger things were found here. We stumbled 
upon little cups of china that were still perfect in all their 
form, upon corked vessels in which water remained pure 
and unchanged, and upon little packets of starch in which 
the starch granules remained as when they were first put 
in. It seemed remarkable that the great storm that had so 
ruthlessly stamped out the life of man should have pro- 
tected and left unharmed these little things that belonged 
to his household. Here, in the chemist's shop, were some 
of his things, untouched. Even from the spigot of the 
street fountain cold water was still running, as it ran of 
old. Here lay bundles of clay pipes, with the clay un- 



26 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 

burned, in nearly the same places where they had been 
offered for sale across the counter. High up in the town 
I found the sounding-board of a piano, with many of its 
strings still tightly wound about their pegs. 

All this seemed more like a dream than a reality. As 
bits of beautiful mosaic paving came out of the ashes, we 
asked ourselves, Are these never to be trod again? Are 
there to be no more flowers and plants in the gardens about 
which bits of fence-railing remain ? Are the glad faces no 
more to be seen of those who sat on the porches and veran- 
das, where only broken columns now stand ? 

We wandered sadly along. One of our party told us 
that a group of bodies lay near. Yes, in the bath-room of 
a private house lay six, burned in flesh until they were 
hardly recognizable as bodies. A woman was stretched 
on her back at the bottom of the bath-tub, with her left 
arm thrown out as if to grasp something in her bitter 
anguish. Near by was an infant, hardly too large to be 
carried in the arms, and beside it the body of another 
woman, crouched as if in agony and despair. To this 
room probably all had retired, expecting a moment of 
relief from the tornado of death that swept over them. 
We came across another group, eight in number. They 
told the same history as the first. 

The thousands of bodies that lie here have been partly 
burned, and nearly all are buried — buried by the con- 
tinuing fall of ashes from the volcano. It is a strange 
fate that the mountain whose eruption cost the lives of so 
many should also give to them their natural burial. It 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 27 

continues in its work of activity as if nothing had hap- 
pened, mocking the beautiful world that surrounds it. 
Miles high into the air it is still puffing its steam and 
ashes, and from its interior still issues that deep thunder that 
more than once before gave warning which was not heeded. 

What to many must appear most singular in connec- 
tion with the terrible catastrophe of May 8, is that the 
stroke of death followed a course that left little behind to 
tell its own history. The student of geology wanders 
among the ruins of a former prosperous city, and seeks in 
vain for those signs of volcanic and seismic activity which 
are and have always been associated with the destruction- 
dealing powers of volcanoes. He searches in vain for the 
rifts that may have tumbled the miles of buildings — in 
vain for the lava-flows with which history has associated 
Etna and Vesuvius. A force of men could almost dig out 
this modern Pompeii in a day or two, so feeble in most 
parts is the ash that has impounded the streets, so gently 
soft the material that the great volcano has vomited out. 
Yet on every side is the most hopeless wreck that can be 
conceived of — a picture of absolute ruin and desolation that 
has perhaps never before been witnessed. "Whence and 
how ?" we ask ourselves, and the question still remains in 
a measure unanswered, and may forever remain with only a 
partial solution. 

The aspect of the ruined city as I found it at the time 
of my first visit differed considerably from that imme- 
diately following the 8th of May, and had manifestly been 
largely shaped by the eruption of May 20. After its 



28 



SAINT PIERRE AND ITS KTJINS 



first destruction, although the extinguishment of life was 
complete, rows of houses were left standing almost intact, 
notably in the central quarters of the city. Photographs 
taken several days after the catastrophe plainly show this 
feature, as well as other features of equal significance, and 




Photo. Heilprin 

THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT PIERRE— AUGUST 23, 1902 

permit us to make an interesting comparison and study 
of the results determined by the two eruptions. Many 
roofs were still in position, the massive building of the 
mayoralty carried its overhanging cornice, and the Hopi- 
tal Militaire its walled (now historic) clock. Many signs 
remained on the buildings, and there were other evidences 
of an only recently passed activity. At the later day, all 



SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 29 

this had changed. The second blast, that in intensity was 
nearly, if not fully, the equal of the first, laid to ground 
what still remained high, and gave to the city that dis- 
tinctive oriented aspect which it now j)resents. The greater 
number of the massive walls run parallel with the sea, or 
in line to the volcano ; and there are few that have been 
preserved in their full height that take a direction at right 
angles to this. It would thus seem that the destroying 
force of the eruption of May 20 expended its main 
energy along a north and south line, shattering everything 
that was more directly opposed to its course. This was not 
so markedly the case on May 8, when much of the force 
was directed radially. It is easy, however, to exaggerate 
the importance of the testimony carried by this alignment 
of walls ; a bird's-eye view of the ruins, like that obtained 
from Morne d'Orange, shows a far greater number of the 
transverse walls standing and more regularity in the streets 
than appear to the eye of the stranger wandering among 
the debris. The city, in fact, is clearly outlined in its 
north-to-south and east-to-west streets. 

The force of the destroying power was stupendous, and 
wrought a ruin the like of which is paralleled only in the 
path of a violent tornado. The most massive machinery 
was bent, torn and shattered ; house-fronts, three and four 
feet thick, crumbled and were blown out as if constructed 
only of cards. The great cathedral bell lay buried beneath 
the framework of iron which had supported it, tossed from 
the church to whose chimes it had so long added its sweet 
music. 



30 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS EUINS 

Our examination of the ruins showed plainly, what 
indeed had already been noted before, that the destruction 
was almost entirely superficial. The destroying agent swept 
the surface, but left almost untouched that which was be- 
neath or buried within it. There were no displacements 
due to earthquake tremors, as, in fact, there were no earth- 
quakes that could properly be called such. It was this 
remarkable superficial current which left intact the contents 
of safes and burial vaults, of material that had been placed 
in subways, and permitted water that had been contained 
in large stoppered vessels to remain unchanged. For days 
after the eruption, cool water continued to flow from the 
faucets of the basement wall of the H6tel-de-Ville and 
from other fountain-heads and hydrants of the city ; and I 
am assured by Signor Parravicino, Italian Consul at Barba- 
dos, who early searched the ruins for a lost daughter, 
that this condition already existed on the 10th of May. 
Still eight days later, water was found issuing from a house- 
pipe, cool and potable. 

Except on the broad principle of a fortuitous happening, 
it is difficult to account for the anomalous conduct of this de- 
stroying blast, — its deadly stroke at one place and its avoid- 
ance of action at another. Tree-trunks, though burnt and 
bereft of all their appendages, were left standing in what must 
necessarily have been the centre of the storm ; bunches of 
clay pipes, exhibiting no traces of either burning or scorch- 
ing, were left at many points where manifestly they had 
been put on sale ; and packets of starch and cereals were 
passed so as to leave their contents undisturbed. Some 



SAINT PIEEEB AND ITS EUINS 31 

cases have been reported where objects had been fused in 
their coverings, when the coverings themselves had re- 
mained untouched. A correspondent who visited Saint 
Pierre about ten days after its destruction speaks of finding 
a bird, dead, but unchanged in its plumage, lying at the 
bottom of a wooden cage, which still hung seaward from 
the balcony of a shattered house ; and there seems to be 
enough evidence to sustain the statement that alongside the 
body of a charred man was found a box of matches, the 
contents of which had escaped ignition. The wonder, in- 
deed, is that with such peculiarities or vagaries in action, 
the destruction of human life should have been so absolute. 
Manifestly a number of causes, rather than a single one, 
contributed to the general destruction. 

It would be difficult to indicate any quarter of Saint 
Pierre which suffered less than any other, unless, possibly, 
it be a part of the city of the Fort. Here, although buried 
beneath a roofing of ash, there is still a semblance of con- 
tinuity maintained, and from a distance the aspect is that 
of deserted walls built against a hillside. Although nearer 
to the volcano than any other part of the city, it may still 
be reasonably assumed that the tornadic draught had not 
in this section developed to the extent that it did in the 
south. On the other hand, the quantity of ash and mud 
covering the ruins north of the Roxelane is far in excess of 
what it is in the other quarters, and in some places rises 
well up to and over what would be the roofs of the houses. 
This is also true of the near section of the city lying con- 
tiguous to the Roxelane on its south side. We were sur- 



32 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS KUINS 

prised to find, on the 25th, that the iron truss bridge across 
this stream was standing, and I found it still firmly intact 
at a later visit, on August 24, when, according to report, 
it should have been long in ruins. 

The destruction of Saint Pierre is such that the greater 
number of the building-sites are unrecognizable even to 
those who were most familiar with the city — or could be 
located only after a careful and comparative study. Of all 
the buildings destroyed the cathedral almost alone j)resents 
an architectural front, the stone coursing being retained on 
the front elevation, with the statuary niches, and parts of 
their contained statues. The walls of the building were 
the most massively constructed of all in Saint Pierre, and 
permit us to understand the degree to which they have 
been preserved. On the other hand, the wreck of the 
building generally only emphasizes the strength of the 
blast which swept it to its doom. A number of the more 
prominent structures have been identified by their step- 
approaches, which in most cases have remained intact. 
This, with the cellar-ways, is all that remains of the 
Theatre in the northern part of the city. It is almost idle 
to speculate upon the number of ways in which the masonry 
of Saint Pierre was shattered and thrown to the ground. 
That the greater part of the destruction was the result of 
a direct impact from the visiting shocks — annihilation in 
the path of a tornadic current — cannot be questioned ; and 
it is merely a point to what degree this annihilation had 
been hastened or furthered by the action directly upon 
mortar of intense heat, and of possible electric strokes. 



SAINT PIERRE AND ITS RUINS 33 

This is a consideration, however, that seems to have no 
approach at this time. 

The ash that in its entirety covers Saint Pierre is incon- 
siderable, and the quantity in no way justifies the extrava- 
gant accounts that have been published regarding it. Ex- 
cept where helped by mud-flows, or where it has accumu- 
lated in wind-drifts, or in wall-fans, it rarely exceeds three 
or four feet; and over the greater part of the city its 
measure, even after later falls, is hardly more than a foot 
or two ; in many places it is much less. It is true that 
rains have considerably lessened the quantity since the first 
fall, but perhaps not to an extent more than has been com- 
pensated for by subsequent discharges. Les Colonies, a 
Saint Pierre journal, reported that already on May 2, 
fifteen inches (forty centimetres) of ash covered the savane 
of the city, but this is probably an accidental overstate- 
ment of the quantity. 

From such evidence as it was possible to obtain, I 
should assume that the greater number of the bodies found 
at Saint Pierre were destitute of clothing, which had 
either been burnt off or swept off in the passage of the 
tornadic blast. In a number of places, located nearer to 
the margin of the field of destruction, as on the heights of 
Trois Ponts, or those beyond towards Morne Rouge, and 
again southward towards Carbet, many clothed bodies 
were recovered ; and on some of these the clothing had 
hardly, if at all, been disturbed. Even in the same wagon- 
side the clothed and the unclothed were found associated. 
The searching power and penetration of the death-dealing 



34 SAINT PIEEEE AND ITS BUINS 

agent are thus brought impressively home to us, and the 
conditions give a clue as to what must have been its nature. 
There is a fair agreement in the report that asserts that 
in a large number of cases the bodies were found with the 
head turned to the ground, and many had the hand placed 
over the mouth and the nostrils. The latter condition is 
certainly expressive of a desire to avoid a gaseous or heated 
inhalation. The thrown condition of the body can reason- 
ably be explained on the supposition that the people gen- 
erally turned their backs, whether in flight or otherwise, to 
the dragon of death that was pursuing them, and were 
then prostrated forward by the sweep of the tornado. 
Bodies were found in unusual numbers at the intersections 
of streets, and particularly so in the Place de Mouillage, 
where the people had gathered to seek spiritual shelter in 
the shadow of the cathedral cross. Nearly all of the 
"bodies had at the time of our visit been removed through 
burning, calcining, or otherwise, or been buried beneath 
new deposits of volcanic ash. 



Ill 

THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

The cataclysm of May 8, 1902, by which a mountain, 
hitherto obscure, was suddenly brought into fame, stands 
unparalleled in the history of volcanoes for its appalling 
nature and the conditions which surround its existence. 
Nor, indeed, is there anything that is properly compara- 
ble with it. Papandayang, in Java, in its great eruption 
of 1772, is assumed to have wrecked forty villages or more ; 
and Asamayama, in Japan, eleven years later, was perhaps 
equally destructive. 3 But the data associated with the his- 
tories of these mountains are to an extent of questionable 
authority, and leave much room for inquiry ; and in 
neither case, while the evisceration of the earth was stu- 
pendous, was there a material destruction of the type that 
is reflected in the wrecking of Saint Pierre. The violent 
eruption, in 1888, of Bandai-San, in Japan, whereby a 
quarter of the summit of the volcano was swept avalanche- 
like over a populous district, was thought to have been 
responsible for the loss of several thousand lives ; but the 
official surveys show the number of killed to have been 
less than five hundred. 

It is certain that the victims of the eruption, in August, 
1883, of the minor volcano of Krakatao numbered up- 
ward of thirty-six thousand. In this extraordinary cata- 
clysm, whose far-reaching phenomena were noted and 

35 



36 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

studied at more distantly removed points of the earth's 
surface than the phenomena of any other eruption, the 
explosive force was most prodigious, and the result of a 
kind which even the scientific mind was slow to recognize. 
An island annihilated, the report of the explosion trans- 
mitted thousands of miles over the earth's surface, and 
clouds of ash kept suspended for a year or more in the 
upper zone of the atmosphere — these were some of the 
features which impressed upon the geologist and physicist 
for the first time the full immensity of the power that was 
resident in the volcanic recesses of the globe. It has been 
estimated that eighteen million cubic metres of earth ma- 
terial were disengaged from the earth in the course of this 
eruption. Much the greater part of the destruction of 
human life was consequent to the washing of the adjacent 
island-shores by rapidly-following " tidal" waves, whose 
translation to distant parts of the globe was phenomenal. 
The rise of this flood-water was in some parts over a 
hundred feet. 4 

The volcanic event that probably to most minds will 
first suggest a comparison with the catastrophe of Mont 
Pelee is the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum by 
Vesuvius, and certainly no other appeals so forcibly 
through its tragic aspects and the relations which attach to 
a civilized life. The physiographic construction of the 
land and the position of the destroyed cities, moreover, 
permit of a certain geographic parallel being established 
between the two episodes. Pompeii was located one mile 
farther from Vesuvius than Saint Pierre was from Mont 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 37 

Pelee, and both volcanoes, so far as can now be told, were 
of almost exactly the same height. The luminous, but 
necessarily brief, description of the events surrounding the 
eruption of Vesuvius that is given to us by the younger 
PI my, which is the only reliable information that we 
possess of this historic event, leaves the student of geology, 
even with the testimony that is obtainable from the ruined 
walls and their contents, still in doubt as to some of the 
main features of the catastrophe. These, indeed, are so 
obscure and are brought out with so many aspects in the 
light of the events of Saint Pierre, that it has been thought 
well to give them special consideration in a chapter devoted 
to a comparison of the phenomena in the two cases. 

The destruction of Saint Pierre came to the city not 
unheralded. For days before, the volcano had been vio- 
lently active, and the form of activity that it assumed was 
of a kind that should have immediately suggested disaster. 
Other volcanoes, like Vesuvius and Etna, have similar 
paroxysms, and are not particularly feared ; but their his- 
tories are long known, and their modern periods of inac- 
tivity are brief compared with even the last phase of 
inactivity on the part of Pelee. It was in early May and 
late April a closed mountain, which suddenly broke from 
its anchorage. Vast columns of steam and ash had been and 
were being blown out, boiling mud was flowing from its 
sides, and terrific rumblings came from its interior. Lurid 
lights hung over the crown at night-time, and lightning 
flashed in dazzling sheets through its cloud-world. What 
further warnings could any volcano give? A blind but 



38 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

impressive belief that nature would not harm, joined to 
appeals against common sense made by a few who thought 
they knew best, held the population to its doom. Not 
even the discovery of a newly-formed crater-cone, made 
ten days before the eruption, seems to have in any way 
counselled a fairer judgment of coming events. 

Statements conflict as to the earliest time when Pelee 
gave signs of a renewal of activity, but there is no question 
that evidences of unrest, whether in light emissions of vapor 
or in rumbling detonations, had been apparent to a few 
several months in advance of the catastrophe. The earliest 
authentic record that I have been able to find of an actual 
observation is contained in the note-book of M. Louis des 
Grottes, an accurate student of nature, who made the 
ascent of the volcano to the Lac des Palmistes on March 
23, and noted his observations with care and precision. 
Looking down from the summit of the mountain, the 
Morne de La Croix, a fairly clear view was obtained of the 
basin of the Etang Sec, and it was plainly seen that it was 
sending out vapors at several points. A strong and incom- 
moding odor of sulphur was remarked by the observers 
even at their elevated position. 

Following the habit of those ascending the volcano to 
inscribe impressions on the walls of the little chapel of 
" Our Lady of the Lake" {Notre Dame de V Etang), which 
stood beside the mountain tarn, the record was placed; 
" AujouroV hui, 23 Mars, le crater e de V Etang Sec est en 
eruption" (this day, March 23, the crater of the Etang Sec 
(dry tarn) is in eruption). M. des Grottes' note-book 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 39 

account of his excursion, a translation of which appears, by- 
permission, in another chapter, is particularly instructive, 
since it gives the only clear statement, so far as I know, of 
the surface conditions of the mountain at a very near period 
preceding the eruption. 

The wholly accordant observations made by MM. 
Lalung and Roger Arnoux, members of the Astronomical 
Society of France, residents in Saint Pierre, and communi- 
cated by them to Camille Flammarion, 5 make it practically 
certain that the first true opening of the volcano was on 
April 25. The crater, whose position in the basin of the 
Etang Sec is clearly established by M. Arnoux, then sud- 
denly broke into eruption, throwing out showers of rock- 
material to heights of one thousand to thirteen hundred 
feet above the mountain. 

During the latter days of April, when, as appears from 
the letter of Mrs. Prentiss, wife of the American Consul, 
the fumes of sulphur were so strong that horses were falling 
in the streets, and the day of the catastrophe there were the 
usual alternations of manifestations which attend volcanic 
outbreaks, with a rapid convergence to a climax. The 
cataclysm had presented all its antecedent phases, and the 
final stroke, when it came, although accomplishing its work 
with unheard-of swiftness, was not that of a bolt from a 
clear sky. At two minutes after eight o'clock, of the time 
of Fort-de-France, the morning of the fatal May 8 saw a 
destructive cloud issue from the fermenting volcano, sweep 
with almost dazzling velocity to its lower slopes, and fall 
upon Saint Pierre. The fiery messenger of death had done 



40 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

its work, and a sheet of rising flame told that the work was 
complete. 




Judge Pub. Co., New York Copyright 

PELEE IN THE MAY ERUPTION 

There are few among the living who were eye-witnesses 
from first to last of the full phenomena that construct this 
extraordinary cataclysm, or who were permitted to follow 
the sequence of events with an intelligence that was not dis- 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 41 

turbed by incidents likely to affect the reason. The fright- 
ful and wholly unprecedented nature of the happenings 
have helped to obscure the facts, and to inject into them an 
interpretation which is not permitted by a more rigid analy- 
sis of the testimony that is presented. On the main points 
of the tragedy, the testimony given by the officers of the 
French cable-ship Pouyer-Quertier, which was at the time 
of the disaster eight miles abreast of Saint Pierre, grap- 
pling for one of the lost cables, appears to be the most 
trustworthy ; and it is confirmed in its principal details by 
the testimony of other observers, notably the late Cure of 
Morne Rouge, Pere Mary, Monsieur Fernand Clerc and 
MM. Arnoux and Celestin, members of the Astronomical 
Society of France, whose points of observation were widely 
separated from one another, and removed from threatening 
danger at the time. The nature of this testimony is so 
accordant, that it may be readily accepted as the foundation 
upon which a scientific conclusion must be based. 

At almost precisely two minutes after eight, of the time 
of Fort-de-France, a working message was sent off from 
the Pouyer-Quertier to the Martinique capital, but it brought 
out no reply. This was the same minute of time in which 
the final word was received at Fort-de-France from Saint 
Pierre. It is manifest, therefore, that the difference of 
local time between the two cities was ten minutes, the 
Hopital Militaire regulating the time for Saint Pierre. 
From the moment that the great black cloud issued from 
the volcano it was followed by the officers of the Pouyer- 
Quertier, who noted that its forepart became luminously 



42 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

brilliant as it approached the sea. In an instant after 
everything was ablaze, and flames shot out from seemingly 
all points of the city as if from a single brazier. Light 
detonations, following one another in rapid succession and 
coming from the direction of Saint Pierre, were a part of 
the phenomena of the ignition, and it is safe to assume that 
they marked passages in the exploding cloud. 6 Only one 
flash of lightning was noted, and that was thought by some 
to traverse the cloud in a vertical direction from below up- 
ward. No flame of any kind was observed previous to the 
ignition of the city, nor was any fire-sheet seen to traverse 
the air in advance of the descending cloud. The further 
incidents of the cataclysm were unobservable, inasmuch as 
the land was immediately veiled in an impenetrable cloud 
of ash and smoke, and the Pouyer- Quertier, itself threatened 
by showers of ashes and fiery cinders, was obliged to seek 
safety in flight. 

A mournful spectator of the tragedy that was being 
enacted below was M. Roger Arnoux, a member of the 
Astronomical Society of France, who from his commanding 
position on the Mont Parnasse, removed awhile from danger, 
calmly surveyed the most important field of the volcano's 
activity. He, too, had noted the death-carrying black 
cloud sweep like a serpent's tongue after its prey, and he 
also observed its rolling motion. No trace of flame was 
visible at any part of its course. 

M. Roux's account of his observations, transmitted to 
Camille Flammarion, is published in the Bulletin de la 
Societe Astronomique de France (August, 1902), and pre- 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 43 

sents in very graphic form the terrible denouement which 
he was forced to observe, and in which was involved the 
loss of a father, mother, brother and sister. The account 
is clearly that of one trained in observation, and it alone 
presents in specific detail the course of the phenomena from 
an early hour to its close. 

" Having left Saint Pierre," writes M. Roux, " at about 
five o'clock in the evening (May 7), I was witness to the 
following spectacle. Enormous rocks, being clearly dis- 
tinguishable, were being projected from the crater to a 
considerable elevation, so high, indeed, as to occupy about 
a quarter of a minute in their flight, and describing an arc 
that passed considerably beyond the Morne Lacroix, the 
culminating point of the massif. About eight o'clock of 
the same evening we recognized for the first time, playing 
about the crater, fixed fires that burned with a brilliant 
white flame. Shortly afterwards, several detonations, simi- 
lar to those that had been heard at Saint Pierre, were noted 
coming from the south, which confirmed me in my opinion 
that there already existed a number of submarine craters 
from which gases were being projected, to explode when 
coming in contact with the air. 

" Having retired for the night (May 7-8) at about nine 
o'clock, I awoke shortly afterwards in the midst of a suffo- 
cating heat and completely bathed in perspiration ; knowing 
my nerves to be agitated, I concluded that it was only 
uneasiness that troubled me, and again retired. I awoke 
about eleven-thirty-five, having felt a trembling of the 
earth, but no other person in my house being about, I 



44 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

thought that my nerves had possibly deceived me, and 
again went to sleep, waking at half-past seven. My first 
observation was of the crater, which I found sufficiently 
calm, the vapors being chased swiftly under pressure of an 
east wind. At^about eight o'clock, when still watching the 
crater, I noted a small cloud pass out, followed two seconds 
afterwards by a considerable cloud, whose flight to the 
Pointe du Carbet occupied less than three seconds, being at 
the same time already in our zenith — thus showing that it 
developed almost as rapidly in height as in length. The 
vapors were in all regards identical with those which were 
being ejected nearly all the time from the crater. They 
were of a violet-gray color, and seemingly very dense, for, 
although endowed with an almost inconceivably powerful 
ascensive force, they retained to the zenith their rounded 
summits. Innumerable electric scintillations played through 
the chaos of vapors, at the same time that the ears were 
deafened by a frightful fracas. 

" I had at this time the impression that Saint Pierre 
had been destroyed, and I wept over the loss of those whom 
I had left the night before. As the monster seemed to near 
us, my people, panic-stricken, ran to a neighboring hill that 
dominated the house, begging me to do the same. At this 
moment a terrible aspirating wind arose, tearing the leaves 
from the trees and breaking the small branches, at the 
same time offering strong resistance to us in our flight. 
Hardly had we arrived at the summit of the hillock when 
the sun was suddenly veiled, and in its place came an 
almost complete blackness. Then only did we receive a 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 45 

fall of stones, the largest of which were about two centi- 
metres of average diameter. At this time we observed over 
Saint Pierre, and in the quarter which I could determine 
to be the Mouillage, a column of fire, estimated to be four 
hundred metres in height, which seemed to be animated 
with a movement of rotation as well as with one of transla- 
tion. This phenomenon lasted for two or three minutes, 
and was followed by a shower of stones and of mud-rain, 
which pressed the lower herbage to the soil and even some 
of the smaller shrubs. This torrential rain lasted for about 
a half an hour. . . . Relatively to a rain of fire, of which 
much has been spoken, I observed nothing of such nature, 
although we followed the phenomena in their entirety." 

The intensity of this early eruption of Mont Pelee will 
always be judged by the extent of the destruction that it 
wrought — the wrecking to tumbled ruins of an entire city 
of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, or more ; the annihila- 
tion of some adjoining suburbs ; and the destruction of 
eighteen vessels that were in the roadstead at that time. 
One of these was the English cable-ship Gh*appler, and an- 
other, the passenger and freight-steamer Roraima, which 
had passed to its anchorage less than two hours before. 
The loss of life can only be stated approximately, and the 
figure given may fall two or three thousand wide of the 
truth. The official census of January, 1894, gives for the 
city of Saint Pierre a population of nineteen thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-two ; and for the commune twenty-five 
thousand three hundred and eighty-two. The later parish 
registers place the population somewhat over twenty-seven 



46 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

thousand. With one or two exceptions all those who had re- 
mained in Saint Pierre perished, but it is known, and placed 
beyond question by the published statements contained in the 
Saint Pierre journals, that hundreds had left the city prior 
to the catastrophe, seeking safer quarters elsewhere. 7 This 
depletion of the city's population seems to have been more 
than made good by numbers of refugees who had fled to 
Saint Pierre for protection, and by an influx of people from 
Fort-de-France and elsewhere, who had come to attend 
special cathedral service on the day of the Ascension. 
Assuming, then, the full population of Saint Pierre, one is 
perhaps justified in accepting the belief of Vicar-General 
Parel, expressed in a letter to the Bishop of the diocese, 
that the full number of the dead could not well have been 
less than thirty thousand. In this estimate, which some 
profess to believe on seemingly not very good grounds to be 
much too small, would be included the killed in the suburbs 
and outskirts of Saint Pierre, and those on board the dif- 
ferent craft that lay about in the roadstead. The annihilation 
of so large a number of lives in a very few minutes — in not 
more than three to five minutes for much the larger body 
— renders impressively appalling the nature of this cata- 
clysm, and suggests problems in geological dynamics that 
have yet to be solved. 

The area of actual destruction that was involved in the 
immediate catastrophe was not very large, most of it being 
contained in the sector that would be bounded by the lines 
drawn from the crater of the volcano to the anse immedi- 
ately north of Carbet and Sainte-Philomene, the whole 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 47 

being comprised in an area of about eight square miles. 
Within this zone the destruction of life and habitation 
was practically absolute. Immediately outside of it the 
measure of life-destruction remained much the same, but 
the mechanical force of the tornadic blast had been largely 
spent, and it permitted habitations of nearly all kinds to 
stand without disorganization. As a rule, the line of de- 
marcation between the outer zone of the singed vegetation, 
where there was little or no destruction beyond the tempo- 
rary effacement of the vegetation, and the non-affected 
region is sharply defined, and one that can be easily fol- 
lowed, sweeping over highland and lowland alike, even from 
a distance. 

Where the course of the tornadic blast was thrown 
across narrow but high-walled valleys, a " haven of refuge" 
was sometimes found in the lee of the nearer or hanging 
wall, the plane of destruction passing overhead and reach- 
ing the opposite side without descending. This condition 
is seen in one or more of the anses (bays) north of Carbet ; 
and in the later eruption of August 30 the same condition 
was repeated, the destructive blast passing over Fonds 
St. Denis and singeing the highland forest beyond. The 
longest line of destruction on May 8 was from the crater 
to the north point of Carbet, almost exactly seven and one- 
half miles ; the storm-blast there passed into the sea, and 
naturally we can only conjecture as to what would have 
happened had the land projected farther to the westward. 
The condition of the ruins in the southern part of Saint 
Pierre gives no indication that the force of the blast had 



48 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

nearly spent itself at that point, or that it had even ma- 
terially weakened. 

A comparison of the energy that was expended in the 
Pelee cataclysm with that of other eruptions of note is 
hardly permitted by reason of the diversity of the condi- 
tions which this comparison touches. The statement has, 
indeed, been made that, apart from its destructive and 
death-dealing quality, the eruption of May 8 was not of 
great power or magnitude. This is judged by the fact 
that the discharge of ashes was not, or did not seem to be, 
notably large, that there was no lava-flow — indicating an 
absence of elevatory power in the lifting or expanding force 
— and that there were no earthquake disturbances of any 
moment. The comparison is, however, an entirely gross 
one, since it is made between conditions that are in no way 
accordant with one another. The explosive force that so 
thoroughly wrecked a compact city two miles in length, or 
nurtured a tornadic current, with a sweeping velocity of 
one to two miles a minute, to accomplish this work, must 
have been prodigious ; and while we do not as yet fully 
understand the nature of this destroying cyclone of wither- 
ing heat and gas, and the precise manner in which it was 
accomplished, it is easy to believe that had the explosive 
force been directed in its work to the inner walls of a 
closed volcano instead of to its outer surface, the catas- 
trophic details of the eruption would have been very dif- 
ferent from what they have in fact proved to be. It is 
also true that the greatest cataclysmic eruptions have been 
unattended with lava-flows, or they had them only of 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 



49 



minor degree. Krakatao, Bandai-San, and Coseguina are 
instances of this kind, and dispose of the notion that the 
power of a volcano is measured by the elevatory force that 
it possesses to raise lava. 

It has been impossible so far to estimate, even for the 
purposes of an argumentative comparison, the quantity of 







Photo. Heilprin 

IRON BRIDGE ACROSS THE ROXELANE— SAINT PIERRE 

ash that was thrown out by Pelee in its great eruption. 
The island of Martinique occupying a position in the direct 
course of the trade (and anti-trade) winds, with no large 
land-mass lying even remotely (except very distantly) on 
either side, it may be inferred that most of the ash has been 
lost on the surface of the open sea, carried out directly to a 

4 



50 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

distance of perhaps several hundred miles. The bark 
Beechwood, travelling from Salaverry to New York, has 
noted in her log-book (under date of May 8) passing 
through a cloud of volcanic ashes in latitude 13° 22' ; 
longitude 49° 50' W. ; about six hundred and sixty miles 
eastward of Martinique. This would seem at this time to 
be the farthest distance from the island at which these 
volcanic products were noted in any quantity ; but the 
determination is not entirely free from doubt, since these 
same ashes may in part be a residuary product from the 
earlier eruption of the Soufriere in St. Vincent. The 
greater portion of the Soufriere ashes of May 6 and 7, 
measured by the quantity that fell over Barbados, appears 
to have travelled with the anti-trade winds — or, at least, 
against the trade-wind — and this was also the case with the 
dense ash-cloud of Pelee which we observed on May 25. 

It is unfortunate that little or no notice was taken in the 
early days of the Martinique eruption of the " after-glows," 
which certainly must have existed, in order to obtain some 
measure at least of the quantity of the finer ash that was 
thrown into the higher regions of the atmosphere. The 
projectile force of the May eruption is represented to have 
been very great, carrying the ash-cloud several miles into 
the air ; and, if so, the high distribution of the finer ash 
must have been considerable. I am informed that at the 
island of Saint Croix, two hundred and fifty miles distant 
in a direct line, brilliant glows appeared almost immediately. 
On my second return voyage from Martinique I observed 
brilliant glows on September 9 in about latitude 26° 30' 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 51 

north ; on September 10, in latitude 30°, and on September 
11, in latitude 33° 45', longitude 71° west. The last 
position is about fourteen hundred miles north-northwest of 
Mont Pelee. The evening following was cloudy and no 
observation could be taken. There is no question that these 
glows, which came up to their full intensity and magnificent 
brilliancy about thirty to forty minutes after sunset, were 
the culmination of the Antillean eruptions, and probably 
of those that had taken place only a few days before, but 
whether of Pelee (August 30) alone, or of Pelee and the 
Soufriere (September 3-4) combined, cannot positively be 
told. The latter condition seems more likely, as the great 
ash-cloud of the Soufriere on this occasion took a northerly 
direction, and swept completely over Martinique. On the 
afternoon immediately preceding the evening eruption of 
August 30, I estimated, roughly perhaps, the elevation of 
the Pelee ash-cloud to have been between six and seven 
miles, which is still considerably less than that of Krakatao 
in 1883 ; but it is seemingly fully equal to the height of 
any other volcanic cloud that has been carefully observed. 
It was then flowing almost directly northward, or somewhat 
east of northward, and towards the region where the after- 
glows were subsequently observed. This certainly helps to 
link the after-glows with this eruption. And yet it would 
be impossible to affirm in the absence of earlier observations 
that the glows may not have been in part an accompaniment 
of the first eruption, left over, and slow in coming. The 
Krakatao after-glows were very tardy in their appearance 
in some places. 8 



52 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

Statements vary, and will continue to vary, regarding 
some of the phenomena that were developed coincidently with 
the shooting out from the volcano of its destructive blast. 
Pelee was almost immediately veiled in an impenetrable 
mantle of ash, and the entire region was in obscuration, 
which probably sufficiently explains the discrepancies that 
appear in the statements of different observers. One of the 
most interesting of the observations made is that relating to 
the formation of a counter wind — one coming from the 
direction opposite to that of the destroying tornado — a 
phenomenon which had already been noted by the observers 
of the Tarawera eruption, in New Zealand, in 1886. M. 
Celestin, in his account of the Martinique disaster published 
in the Bulletin of the Societe Astronomique de France 
(August), describes this suddenly-appearing wind from the 
south as a vent impetueux, une veritable bourrasque, before 
which the trees were bowed to the ground ; and M. Roux, 
evidently referring to the same wind, says that it tore the 
leaves from the branches of the trees, and even broke the 
smaller branches. On the morning of June 6, at the time 
of the eruption of the great ash-cloud from Pelee, which 
was travelling with intense velocity southward, I noted the 
regular clouds of the atmosphere, in a much lower stratum, 
flying swiftly towards the volcano. They seemed to be 
pulled towards its active point. What the precise significance 
of these counter currents may be, I do not profess to know, 
but they may be bound up with a condition of atmospheric 
rarefaction or vacuum formed in the immediate compass of 
the volcano. 



THE CATACLYSM OP MAY 8 53 

Regarding the destroying blast itself, of which a fuller 
consideration is given elsewhere, it can only be said in this 
place that it was tornadic in the violence of its sweep, of an 
intensely high degree of temperature, explosive in action, 
and necessarily gaseous in construction. To what degree it 
may have been charged with the earthy products of erup- 
tion brought to a condition of incandescence cannot now 
be determined, and probably never will be determined 
with certainty, but it seems positive, from the statements of 
Captain Freeman, of the Roddam, and Chief-Officer Scott, 
of the less fortunate Roraima, that a rain of burning ashes 
was an immediate accompaniment of the explosion, and 
was perhaps directly responsible for the burning of most of 
the shipping in the roadstead. We are told that the Rod- 
dam " was covered from stem to stern with tons of powdered 
lava, which retained its heat for hours after it had fallen. 
In many cases it was practically incandescent, and to move 
about the deck in this burning mass was not only difficult, 
but absolutely perilous." In Captain Freeman's recital it 
is said that a wall of fire swept over the town and bay, 
striking the Roddam broadside, and with such force as to 
nearly capsize her. A probably more correct interpretation 
of this phenomenon would be that the swiftly-descending 
volcanic cloud was surcharged with incandescent particles 
(and burning flames of gas ?) and thus gave the appearance 
of a solid wall of fire. 

Professor Hill, in his report to the National Geographic 
Society, 9 has already well stated that the cataclysm brought 
no important change in the topography or contour of the 



54 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

island, even in the quarter in which the volcano is im- 
planted. The bays, valleys, gorges and ridges remain prac- 
tically the same, and the new features, minor to the land- 
scape at large, are those which have been added through 
the eruptive processes of the volcano — the crateral cone, the 
deposits of ash, cinders, etc. There has been no appre- 
ciable rise in the general island-surface, and no subsidence 
either. The volcano, except for the loss of a portion of its 
culminating Morne, stands as it did with its full height. 
Some of the ravines and gorges of Pelee have unquestion- 
ably been deepened and widened, but no important new 
forms of this structure have been noted. It may be that 
along some parts of the western coast of the island there 
have been " drops" in the ocean basin — one such has been 
noted at the mouth of the Precheur River — but if subsi- 
dences of this class at all, they are wholly of localized 
extent and without special significance. The great abyss 
that had been reported formed westward of Martinique on 
the line of the Puerto-Plata cable has been shown by the 
soundings of the French cable-steamer Pouyer-Quertier to 
be non-existent. The severed ends of the cable were found 
in depths closely corresponding with those that had been 
previously established by the cable-steamer Seine, in 1896, 
for the approximate positions from which the strands were 
recovered. Admiral Gourdon, Commandant of the Naval 
Force of the Atlantic, has favored me with a tracing of the 
operations of the Pouyer-Quertier, made by Captain Thi- 
rion, which is here reproduced, and also with a brief letter 
addressed to him by the latter officer, in which the oppor- 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 



55 




CABLE CHART OF THE " POUYER-QUERTIER' 



56 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

tunity is taken to deny the reported finding of a marked 
oscillation in the ocean bottom. It states : " Contrary to 
the false reports that have been circulated touching the enor- 
mous differences of depth that were thought to have been 
found along the line of the cable, the j)lan which I trans- 
mit to you indicates that the depths have but little varied." 
(Translation.) 

The same letter, however, contains the interesting state- 
ment that evidences of a sub-oceanic disturbance or boiling 
(eboulements) are not wanting, especially indicated in a 
zone of one thousand to one thousand and fourteen fathoms, 
and it is thought that to it may be due the constant and 
successive breakages of the cable.* 

The remarkable condition in which one of the cable- 
ends, coiled and knotted about a trunk or thick branch of a 
tree, was brought up from a depth of six hundred fathoms, 
and the fact that a buoy anchored in three hundred fathoms 
was lost, seemingly sucked under, almost immediately after 
it had been placed, go far to sustain this supposition. A 
disturbance or ebullition along the sea-bottom is, indeed, 
something that one could readily expect as a concomitant 
of the Pelee eruption, and it ought not to surprise us if a 
condition of active eruptions were at any time discovered to 



* " Neanmoins, dans le quadrilatere qui figure sur le caique, et 
qui represente la zone sillonnee par notre grapin pendant plusieurs 
jours, nous sommes fort portes a croire que des eboulements se sont 
produits, eboulements qui ont d'abord brisee notre cable, puis l'ont 
enseveli, et nous mettent aujourd'hui dans l'impossibilite de le crocher, 
dans une zone encore mal definie." 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 57 

exist in the greater shore depth about the island. Oceanic 
disturbances of greater or less magnitude have been noted 
to have taken place about seven miles westward of the island 
of St. Lucia ; and sea-captains claim to have remarked a 
material change in the course of the currents sweeping 




RECOVERED CABLE STRAND ENVELOPING BRANCH OF TREE 

along the west and north coasts of Martinique. Unfortu- 
nately, the observations which record these assumed dis- 
turbances still lack full confirmation. On the other hand, 
the sinking of a portion or of several portions of the sea- 
bottom adjacent to the northern parts of the island of St. 
Vincent, incident to the eruption of the Soufriere, seems to 



58 THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 

be a well-established fact ; but even here the full extent of 
the subsidence or subsidences remains unknown. 

What particular relation the eruption of Pelee bears to a 
condition of general catastrophism in the Caribbean region 
is discussed in a later chapter ; here it can only be said 
that it followed as a culmination to events which had been 
marked by such important passages as the destruction, by 
earthquake, of Chilpancingo, in southern Mexico, in Janu- 
ary of the same year ; the destruction, also by earthquake, 
of Quezaltenango, in Guatemala, on April 18 ; the minor 
volcanic eruptions in Nicaragua and Costa Rica ; and the 
immediately preceding eruption (May 6 and 7) of the Sou- 
friere of St. Vincent. Some seismologists and vulcanolo- 
gists have attempted to draw a parallel or correlation be- 
tween the events of the western Mediterranean basin and 
the somewhat similar ones — to which Vesuvius, the sub- 
volcanic ebullitions along the coast of Spain, and the nu- 
merous earthquakes in the Balkan Peninsula have given 
expression — occurring in the east or true Mediterranean, 
but it is plain to see that the broad range and indiscrimi- 
nate distribution of manifestations of like kind that can be 
brought into such a " time" correlation — as, lor example, the 
strong earthquakes in Finland of April 10-11 ; the strong 
earthquake at Lake Baikal, April 12 ; the eruptions of Re- 
doubt and Illiamna, Alaska, in April-May ; and the earth- 
quake of Shemaka, Caucasus, April 17 — destroy any value 
that such a comparison might have, unless, indeed, it is 
made for the purpose of demonstrating that earthquake and 
volcanic phenomena the world over are on the ascendant, 



THE CATACLYSM OF MAY 8 59 

and that we have reached a particular moment in the 
earth's history when the outer crust is being specially agi- 
tated. There are no known facts in geology that can be 
adduced in opposition to a demonstration of this kind, any 
more than there are facts that might be said to directly sup- 
port it. For the region about Pelee itself, however, it is 
evident that a condition has developed which is new to its 
modern history, and one that opens a serious consideration 
of facts in the geology and geography of a large section of 
the earth's surface which have hitherto almost escaped at- 
tention. 



IV 
DAYS OF FEAK AND TREMBLING 

At precisely two minutes after eight of the fatal May 8, 
as marked by the time of the capital of Martinique, the 
single word " allez" was sent over the wire from Saint Pierre 
to Fort-de-France. It came as a request to finish a message 
travelling in the opposite direction. This was the last com- 
munication that was received by the outside world from the 
ill-fated city previous to its destruction. 

When that final word left Saint Pierre, it would appear 
that there was no particularly disquieting circumstance to 
presage impending disaster. The good-natured operator was 
at his post, attending in the usual way to the business of his 
office. Yet, for days before, enough had taken place to 
make the less strong fear and tremble, and to cause many 
anxious hours to those who could not be comforted by scien- 
tific explanation or newspaper analysis. In any country 
but Martinique the symptoms of uneasiness to which Mont 
Pelee gave expression would have impressively counselled 
flight ; but in this island of tropical dreams and sunshine 
the warnings went for practically naught. A feeling of 
strange security had impressed itself upon the people, for, 
as appears from an announcement contained in Les Colonies, 
the more important daily journal of Saint Pierre, a large 
excursion had been planned as late as the 1st of May for 
the summit of the mountain, to take place on the fourth of 

60 



DAYS OF FEAE AND TREMBLING 61 

that month. What pathos is carried in the words : "If the 
weather be fine, the excursionists will pass a day that will 
long be kept in pleasant remembrance !" Only once before 
in the lifetime of the oldest inhabitant of the island had the 
volcano exhibited an uneasy temper, but it was recalled that 
the eruption of 1851 had been without destructive character, 
and with hardly enough life to it to cause discomfort even 
to those approaching within close range of its fires. It was 
thought reasonable, except by one or two, to whom volcanic 
manifestations were more than passing shows, that this 
eruption would be merely the echo of the one of the past, 
and that no disastrous consequences need be feared. So 
late as May 7, Les Colonies, which, for political reasons, 
appears to have been particularly interested in holding the 
inhabitants to their city, continued to scoff at those who 
meditated flight. Earlier numbers of the same journal 
describe the condition of panic which prevailed throughout 
the many darkening days and nights of the city : men, 
women and children moving and wailing, only to return in 
most cases to their homes, to be lured again to a feeling of 
fancied security. A wiser few had left for good, seeking 
refuge in the quiet atmosphere of Morne Rouge, whose com- 
manding heights, packed closely to the foot of Mont Pelee 
itself, surveyed the beautiful roadstead and the intercepting 
declivity that descends to the water's edge. 

Only in the light of the later occurrences can one picture 
the dreary forecast of what was then impending, the unusual 
appearance of the city as it had already existed for many 
days, and the higher resolve which prompted the inhabitants 



62 DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING 

to abide by the counsel of a few who undertook the work of 
reassurance for the many. A city choked with sulphur, its 
streets blocked with falling and fallen ash, and with a 
burning and thundering volcano standing at its threshold 
— this is the picture of Saint Pierre during the latter days 
of April and early May, the city whose gayety had been 
compared to that of Paris, and its life to that of Rome. In 
the latter days of April, as is made known through a letter 
written by the wife of the American Consul, Mrs. Prentiss, 
the conditions then existing must have been all but unbear- 
able, for as she writes : " The smell of sulphur is so strong 
that horses on the street stop and snort, and some of them 
drop in their harness and die from suffocation. Many of 
the people are obliged to wear wet handkerchiefs to protect 
them from the strong fumes of sulphur." The odor of 
sulphurous gases had already been perceived three months 
before, but seemingly not until April 23, when there was a 
slight fall of cinders, did the volcano give external evidence 
of an active existence. On that day a number of distinct 
shocks were felt, causing the houses to rock and dishes to 
fall from their shelves. 

The student of a later day can plainly see that from 
this time on to the fatal eighth, the succession of events 
was rapidly hurrying to a climax. The activity of the 
volcano was no longer localized, nor was it confined to one 
form of demonstration. On April 25 smoke was noted 
issuing from the summit vent ; the crater had opened, and 
a storm of rock and ashes was hurled into the air from the 
ancient pot known as the Soufriere of the Etang Sec. A 



DAYS OF FEAK AND TKEMBLING 63 

second eruption on the day following caused considerable 
disquietude, and by this time the covering of ash was a part 
of the landscape. This earliest incident of any importance 
that is connected with Mont Pelee's reawakening presents 
itself in an interesting form through the observations made 
after a brief interval of Messrs. Boulin, Waddy, Decord, 
Bouteuil, Ange and Berte, which are recorded in the issue 
of Les Colonies under date of May 7. Ascending the 
mountain (April 27) by way of the Petite Savane and 
Morne Paillasse on a little-travelled and much overgrown 
path, these investigators found to their surprise that the 
normally dry bed of the Etang Sec or Soufriere, which 
had remained all but peaceful during the eruption of 1851, 
and whose most advanced claim to activity lay in the emis- 
sion of sulphurous vapors, was now in a condition of fer- 
ment. A sheet of water, estimated to measure roughly two 
hundred metres (six hundred and fifty feet) in diameter, 
occupied the centre of a hollow or basin (cuvette), which in 
itself had a basal diameter of three hundred metres. 
Along one side of this picturesque lakelet, which more 
than once before had come into being to mock its own 
name of Etang Sec, rose a diminutive mountlet, hardly 
more than thirty feet high, whose summit threw out long 
trains of steaming vapor. The travellers observed a bril- 
liantly shimmering surface appear at times beneath the 
crowning vapor, while an almost continuous fall of water 
was cascaded into the surrounding and lower-lying lake. 
This small volcanic cone, whose crateral diameter was 
assumed to be approximately fifty feet (fifteen metres), had 



64 DAYS OF FEAE AND TKEMBLING 

not been noted before, nor is there any reference to it con- 
tained in the much earlier descriptions of the volcano. It 
thus becomes particularly interesting as helping to localize 
the rift whence issued the destroying force of the fatal May 
day, and one of the points of main weakness in the volcano. 
When it was first observed the noise of boiling matter came 
loudly from within. 

The days of assumed security continued to come and go, 
bringing anxiety to many minds, and a still sterner resolve 
to others to resist to the end. Light falls of ashes which 
to some must have called up visions of distant Pompeii and 
its destroyer Vesuvius, began to fasten a wintry look upon 
the streets, while distant rumblings followed ominously 
close upon one another. Through the obscured daylight 
the eye could still follow the course of the unchanged land- 
scape, but the ear noted the fall of rushing waters. The 
idyllic Roxelane, so dear to the youth who knew no other 
water but its own, had risen to a wild torrent, and on the 
other side of the plain of the northern city roared the 
Riviere des Peres. There appeared to be nothing to give 
to these streams their temper, for no marked eruption is 
noted at this time, but the waters came impelled with a 
wild fury, and spread wreckage along their course. 

The quiet of May 1 was followed by a day that largely 
changed the aspect of the country. In the columns of 
Les Colonies may still be seen the announcement of the 
excursion planned for the summit of Mont Pelee, but a 
white coat of ashes had covered the streets already in the 
early hours of morning. It was like real winter this time. 



DAYS OF FEAK AND TBEMBLING 65 

The beautiful Jardin des Plantes, which had furnished 
such rare treasures from the tropics to its parent in Paris, 
lay buried with its palms, its ravenalas, rubber-trees, and 
mangos, its giant cactuses and red hibiscus, beneath a cap 
of gray and white — the same as the noble avenue of tropical 
shade-trees on the Place Bertin. The heights above the 
city were white-gray, and Grande Savane had several 
inches of ash lying over it. The country roads were 
blocked and obliterated, and horses would neither work nor 
travel. Birds fell in their noiseless flight, smothered by 
the ash that surrounded them, or asphyxiated by poisonous 
vapors or gases that were being poured into the atmosphere. 

The following days, the 3d and 4th of May, could 
hardly have been those of assurance to the inhabitants, for 
the volcano continued to tremble and to roar, and to throw 
its heated ashes. over at least a part of the city. 

" The rain of ashes never ceases," remarks Les Colonies 
(May 3). " At about half-past nine the sun shone forth 
timidly. The passing of carriages is no longer heard in 
the streets. The wheels are muffled. The ancient trucks 
creak languidly on their worn tires. Puffs of wind sweep 
the ashes from the roofs and awnings, and blow them into 
rooms of which the windows have imprudently been left 
open. Shops which had their doors half-closed are now 
barred up entirely. The following business houses are 
closed to customers : the maisons Saint- Yves, Deplanche, 
Doliret, Reynoird, Boissiere, Celestin, Constance Esope, 
Boulange, Guichard, Dupuis et Cie., Vinac, Andrieux, 
Villemaint, Lejeune, Delsuc, Lalanne, Medouze, Lathifor- 

5 



66 DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING 

diere, Crocquet, Bazar du Mobilier, Bazar Sans Rival, etc." 
The same issue of this journal announces the postponement 
of the excursion to Mount Pelee in the following words : 
" & excursion qui avait ete org anise e pour demain matin 
rfaura pas lieu, le cratere etant absolument inaccessible. 
Les personnes qui devaient y prendre part seront avisees 
ulterieurement dujour ou cette excursion pourra etre reprise." 

One can hardly picture at this time a scene of more 
hopelessly impending ruin ; for what the volcano had thus 
far spared, or seemed disposed to spare, the torrential waters 
of the descending streams threatened to take to themselves. 
The sea is described as having been " covered in patches 
with dead birds. Many lie asphyxiated on the roads. The 
cattle suffer greatly — asphyxiated by the dust of ashes. The 
children of the planters wander aimlessly about the court- 
yards with their little donkeys, like little human wrecks. 
A group goes along hesitatingly down the Rue Victor 
Hugo. They are no longer black, but white, and look as 
if hoar-frost had fallen over them. . . . Desolation, aridity, 
and eternal silence prevail in the countryside. Little birds 
lie asphyxiated under the bushes, and in the meadows the 
animals are restless, — bleating, neighing and bellowing 
despairingly." 

The Riviere Blanche, which flows off the southwest- 
ward slope of Mont Pelee and discharges two miles north 
of Saint Pierre, was one of the eaux bouillants or turbulent 
waters, sweeping relentlessly to the sea. In part of its 
valley was enacted, on May 5, the first chapter in the 
tragedy of Mont Pelee. Near the mouth of this stream, in 



DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING (17 

a tongue of flat-land that unites its bed with that of the 
Riviere Seche, was located one of the largest and most 
profitable sugar establishments of the island. The Usine 
Guerin had stood as a type for what it represented through 
long years of toil and conquest, and its tall chimney looked 
proudly over the fields of cane that circled about it, the 
grands bois of the mountain slope, and the blue waters of 
the near-by sea. Few of the great chains of wheels were 
longer running, for the Riviere Blanche had given warning, 
and the warning was for once heeded. Had the language 
of the river been entirely understood, thirty or more human 
lives would have been saved from the destruction that so 
swiftly overtook the establishment. Hardly had the mid- 
day hour passed on that eventful 5th, when the gates of the 
volcano were drawn, and a flood of boiling mud was sent 
hurling down the mountain side to be flung from it into the 
sea. In three minutes it had covered its three miles to the 
ocean, and within that time had left nothing visible of the 
Usine Guerin but its chimney — a post projecting from a 
desert of black boiling and seething mud. In this way 
Pelee began its work of death. 

It was needless to ask whence came the mud ; it could 
plainly be traced to the position of the Soufriere or Etang 
Sec. 10 A care-worn observer was at this time following the 
occurrence from the estate of Perrinelle. For days he had 
been observing the volcano, turning a watchful eye to every 
new phase of action that was presented. He felt within 
himself how insecure was the ground that was trod in the 
shadow of a burning volcano, and pointed out to his stu- 



68 



DAYS OF FEAE AND TEBMBLING 



dents at the Lycee the menacing force that was always 
present. Professor Landes, alone, of the Commission that 
was subsequently appointed by the Governor of Martinique 
to inquire into the condition of danger, seems to have fully 
realized the geological relations then existing, and it was a 
fatal moment when, contrary to his better judgment, he 





OPPOSITE THE RIVIERE SECHE 



united in the counsel which advised a peaceful abidance 
Avith the events that might follow. From his position at Per- 
rinelle, Professor Landes observed the torrential character 
of the Riviere Blanche, which was hurling along blocks of 
rock, estimated in some instances to weigh as much as fifty 
tons ( ! ) ; and at the same time he noted a white seething 



I E NUM EBO IP C ENTIMES. 

i uiiuiu i j ib u jui ii m ii i M ji i r-" — 




ORQANG KEPUBUfiVLV M\IA MVWTlSViUV] 




Vendues par esempJe damn i'Am£nu:tU! du 
jN'ord el en Hisiaie out eie exetnp'es de toal 
puSiomeae. ftdcanique, m.'<n<* depnis le* 
age* geolo"iques les pin* recall, tandis yae 
d sQirci region* qui, aux premier* ages de 
la terre, etatenl siijetlei it des piuie* de 
eundres etfcdes cOultie* de lave, m trouvenl 
aujourd'hui complement iibrei de ioule 
P<Wturbatioo. 

^ Oo voit done qa'il y a deplaeement conli- 
DueT, d'uo poinl de I Scarce « an autre, dea 
■Ij'riDcipflas toyerj d'ou ic developp;-tH | f: » 
voleans. l^i ftntdlle' originellc de linttsriear 

;tfe. la terre el la consolidation griduelle dc 



ta'ntn de matfe 

encore , dunmtle.. r _, 

nwJA ii qp Eauly voir qdffdfa ti 



1 relations peat-j're 'nanci mice Je* 
anircs. 

11uidi$ e decM HU-n::, 
*Mrlalu'5' faotnenta? 

11 parait Wen elabll qae I'eaa (outt In role 
pij^^ldaaiUiiTypiloQg.Oood'abjrdHip- 
ppse qu d exiiUii, i uoe prorondeur de uln- 
-;.i>x>L<loiaetre«aa^icuouideia mrlacode 
ia terre de vastes eavfles aouleruines dam 
u*qoeue» *sccotnult li live A lorsque lean, 



sou de 1'Efc 
dont lu di*oe»csl rainpue, lalusaul tomJ&f 
dc« wiox Twueusss -a uob haiifeur de TOO 
jii'lrt's. St, chose sorprenaolc, il n'y r pas 
eu trepidation du so! sou* I'inilucaitt rftr c IU- 
t norm a cliuie. c'c*t que lu m<sr a fait lam- 
pon, 

II r/iolte de* oUticrvntions d« M. Lande* 
que, dans In maliu^e d'lii^r. In U,lk:1i.' c.-ii- 
Iralt: do volenti, nftotJe aux fenlrs sup.-- 
ik-uo;*, ('OitilajwitpitiB.jU'.- jmttil:., miiit* iiar 

jatioe»e| noire*. 

11 I'.iUl lull' li! tolld d.'.i ^>|!,-,"w.V.iUiH;HKi:i 

' habiter it unc c^riafne lumu'iir pour i ; viier 



: V«* 



rz" 1 ' 



0)0,1 



M 



W I, 



KfeSS 



pour ecu* do- NHpiei, 



.Opcmlant, « uialin, k inont,iKu,o, ctai( 
decqnvcrht j* morne La Croix s'esi montro 
proKDltnliiMbtM, du cdledjsl'KlrtnKplciiv, 
ttue <Sctianertire d* 100 ta6tr«i jde loow «nr -4u 
«ielr<-» dc hiulcur, raodantpoiiii)la la ctmle 
partk-iu do utie £raJneace qui po^rralt ume- 
i»r Un pta d*Wpidalioa du sol, 



Nour. disions done qu'A I'oinlwuchort 
lentt Btcgouflre claru un immense Iroi 

tons k-i dtfhris v.; w -:r«u^ >.VmJn«niux arrft 
cinii «ur In parcours de Jn rivu.-,. a p 
coiirnnt rep,iritlt ji iti suifdco de ia mcr \xt 
r»i'u pins rtn hiVgtt cllflrrlant cfls dehrl*. 
(jb fltSiHrnJemt'tit do In noxehiuo 
l.t lloxelone a d^bordii » son lour ljiei 
i'lir, \ I'iiopi henrea. Csttc era.- nul-iic iiiuii 

flboodoncfdan 1 1: ', U*qUu« Vtwl^Haa 

I , 

UiatetriifonciKOn a w,v.i,> : 'h pr-.'^Vinv"'.' 
1'embcmchare Ue gmndes quaniiii?* J.- Mbv 



UfailriftrtlM d« Sir«-fiierre ccutHnae a 
m faij-e d> pins «u plm ialoa.se, 

yu mTTllnjusqu'ua*olrfjl toulc la null ce 
oa soa^ quo geoa pressiii poriant d(!S paqoels, 
del raallei, des eajajtu et se dlrJocKot yen 
If Pondf-Salnt-DBiiis, le Moroe-d Orange Ic 
Carpeu etc.. etc. Q Ja „t Aal vapeurs dc U 
CompagmeGirardils ne d^sempliwflnt pas. 
Pom dontier one Idee dj mou^ment d aOV 
Umenl, oitons det ctjiitrei. 



SOUSGRIPTION 

EN FAVKUR 

DES SrNISTRES 

LA MOXTAGNE PELEE 

Ilipoil :lv: .' 



E. Lalnono 

I Ati'liiEiii 



FAC-SIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE LAST ISSUE OF LES COLONIES (MAY 7) 



DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING 69 

mass discharge with express-train velocity from the position 
of the Etang Sec, and sweep down the mountain in the 
plain between the Rivieres Blanche and Seche. This was 
the avalanche of boiling mud and water that fell upon the 
Usine Guerin and annihilated it with its unfortunate in- 
mates. There can hardly be a question that the explana- 
tion of the occurrence as given by Professor Landes is the 
correct one : the Etang Sec, filled with the product that was 
discharged into it by the newly-formed vent, broke through 
one of its sustaining walls, and emptied itself of its boiling 
contents. This condition makes intelligible the enormous 
quantity of mud that was precipitated at one time, the 
thickness of which in some parts of its flow was probably 
not less than one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. 
The coast-line between Sainte Philomene and Fonds-Core 
was materially extended by its discharge, and is to-day un- 
recognizable in its contours to those who knew the region 
best. 

To the greater fear that was brought to the inhabitants 
by the volcano was now added that of a " tidal" wave. 
For a short time, indeed, it looked as if the city were to be 
swept by the sea, for the waters, following a long recession, 
rose high upon the beach, and penetrated even to the Place 
Bertin. When the great mud-flow of the Riviere Blanche, 
shortly before half- after-twelve, local time, plunged into the 
sea, the latter withdrew three hundred feet or more, per- 
haps driven to this distance by the impounding force. A 
yacht, the Precheur, was overturned at her anchorage five 
hundred feet from the shore. The transgression of the 



70 DAYS OF FEAR AND TREMBLING 

ocean was fortunately a quiet one, and it left the prome- 
nade, the landing-place, and the central Place without in- 
flicting serious damage. " A flood of humanity," remarks 
Les Colonies, " poured up from the low point of the Mouil- 
lage. It was a flight for safety, without knowing where to 
turn. Shop-girls were fleeing with bundles, one with a 
corset, another with a pair of boots that did not match ; 
and all in burlesque attire which would have evoked 
laughter had the panic not broken out at so tragic a 
moment. The entire city is afoot. The shops and private 
houses are closing. Every one is preparing to seek refuge 
on the heights." At this time the roaring of the volcano 
continued almost without intermission, relieved at intervals 
by concussional shocks that told that something was doing. 
Saint Pierre had been left in night darkness. For 
many days the disturbed condition of the atmosphere had 
interfered with its electric illumination, and it was largely 
by the aid of brilliant flashes of lightning, which came 
with almost blinding effect, that the terror-stricken inhabi- 
tants were enabled to grope their way through the thicken- 
ing streets — to inquire, to search, and to find not. Many 
had by this time fled to the hills, and others had left the 
city and island for stabler shores, where there were but 
faint echoes of the terrible detonations that broke from the 
mountain. On the clay following the destruction of the 
Usine Guerin, Pelee was shrouded in heavy cloud, and its 
ashes and cinders fell over a wide country, extending from 
Macouba, on the north coast, to Saint Pierre and beyond. 
The vegetation of forest-land, savanna and plantation was 



DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING 71 

burned, and the cane and cocoa-nut were bowed to mother- 
earth under the load of ash. and mud that had fallen. The 
country had already before this come to wear a strangely 
withered aspect, for much of that which was growing had 
been stripped of its leaves and branches and otherwise de- 
nuded. Some of the surface waters had disappeared, 
whether sucked up by the volcano or not cannot be told, 
and pieces of land been deserted by cattle and other animals 
whose manner betrayed an anxiety of mind akin to that 
which agitated man. During these many days the atmos- 
phere had remained singularly impassive, the barometer at 
Saint Pierre indicating at the noon hour a pressure of seven 
hundred and sixty-one or seven hundred and sixty-two 
millimetres, the fluctuation at this hour during many days 
confining itself to hardly more than one millimetre. 

An intelligent analysis of the situation prevents one 
from understanding how with the conditions prevailing at 
this time at Saint Pierre, with a roaring and erupting vol- 
cano rising from its very foot, a placid attitude could have 
been maintained that still counselled remaining, and scoffed 
at the notion of a departure. Where on the island, the 
inhabitants are asked editorially, could a more secure place 
be found in the event of visitation by an earthquake ? The 
earthquake, for which the poor people had trembled from 
day to day, came not. In its place came that which was 
wholly unexpected, and which, in fact, could not have been 
foreseen. A commission appointed to investigate the con- 
dition of the volcano reported that there was nothing in its 
activity that warranted departure from the city. The posi- 



72 DAYS OF FEAE AND TEEMBLING 

tion of the craters and of the valleys opening on the sea 
was such, they said, that the safety of Saint Pierre was 
absolutely assured ("la position relative des crater es et des 
vallees debouchant vers la mer permet d'affirmer que la se- 
curite de Saint Pierre reste entiere'). 

This report was virtually, and perhaps willingly, en- 
dorsed by the unfortunate Governor, who, lured to its creed, 
embarked on that tour of personal examination to which he 
and his wife both fell victims. A far keener foresight was 
that of the captain of the Italian ship Orsolina, who on 
that 7th of May, contrary to the protests of those whom he 
was serving, and the threats of the customs officers, decided 
peremptorily to sail out with his half cargo, and turn his 
stern to Pelee. He knew what Vesuvius was, he said, but 
he felt that Pelee was much that Vesuvius was not. 



V 
THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIERRE 

Wednesday, May 7, opened one of the saddest and 
most terrorizing of the many days that led up to the final 
catastrophe. 

Since four o'clock in the morning Pelee had been hoarse 
with its roaring, and vivid lightning flashed through its 
shattered clouds. Thunder rolled over its head, and lurid 
lights played across its smoking column. Some say that at 
this time it showed two fiery crater-mouths, which shone out 
like fire-filled blast furnaces. The volcano seemed prepared 
for a supreme effort. When daylight broke in through 
the clouds and cast its softening rays over the roadstead, 
another picture of horror rose to the eyes. The shimmer- 
ing waters of the open sea were loaded with wreckage of all 
kinds — islands of debris from field and forest and floating 
fields of pumice and jetsam. As far as the eye could reach, it 
saw but a field of desolation. This was the early awaken- 
ing of the day before the end, and one can hardly picture a 
more disheartening opening of a new day. For days the 
strenuous editor of the provincial paper, Les Colonies, had 
been admonishing his readers to pay little heed to the vol- 
cano, to regard its work more in the light of a nature-study 
than of something to be feared. One reads with a feeling 
of gentle pity an article on volcanoes that is published in 
the last issue of this journal. It is printed on the first 

73 



74 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEEEE 

page, and in the first column, and tells of the general phe- 
nomena of vulcanism. With a blind faith in the righteous- 
ness of things, the same issue (May 7) publishes an inter- 
view with Professor Landes, of the Lycee, in which that 
unfortunate scientist is made to appear as saying that there 
was not more to be feared at Saint Pierre from Mont Pelee 
than there is at Naples from Vesuvius. One can hardly 
credit this belief to a man of the scientific standing of 
Professor Landes, and it is easily possible that the conclu- 
sion that is inferentially drawn from the interview was con- 
structed by the editor of the journal, and on perhaps justi- 
fiable premises. 

The following is the full text of the interview as it ap- 
pears in the journal : 

AN INTERVIEW WITH M. LANDES. 

M. Landes, the distinguished professor of the Lycee, has been 
pleased to grant us an interview yesterday, apropos of the volcanic 
eruption of the Montagne Pelee and the phenomena which preceded 
the catastrophe of the Usine Guerin. 

The following is the result of our conversation. 

On the morning of the 5th (May), M. Landes observed torrents 
of smoke escaping from the summit portion of the mountain, from 
the locality known as the Terre Fendue. He observed that the Eiviere 
Blanche was periodically swelling, and that it was running with five 
times the volume of water that the high floods normally furnish. It 
was hurling along blocks of rock some of which must have weighed 
fifty tons. 

M. Landes was stationed at the habitation of Perrinelle and 
searched at twelve-fifty for the Etang Sec ; he noted a whitish mass 
descend the slope of the mountain with the swiftness of an express 
train, and enter below the valley of the river, where it marked its 



THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIERRE 75 

course with a thick cloud of white smoke. It was this mass of mud, 
and not lava, which submerged the Usine. 

Later on, at the foot of the Morne Lenard, it appeared to M. 
Landes that there was a new branch and that it possibly threw out lava. 

M. Landes holds that the phenomenon of Monday is unique in 
the history of volcanoes. It is true, he tells us, that the mud lavas 
develop with very great rapidity, but this catastrophe was determined 
rather by an avalanche than by a flow of mud lava. The valley has 
received the contents of the Etang Sec, whose dyke having broken, 
permitted of the fall of the muddy waters from an altitude of seven 
hundred metres. If, as a surprising fact, there is no trembling of the 
surface under the influence of this enormous fall, it is simply because 
the sea has acted as a buffer. 

It follows from the observations of M. Landes that yesterday 
morning (May 6) the central mouth of the volcano, situated over the 
higher (summit) fissures vomited out more actively (though intermit- 
tently) than ever pulvurulent yellow and black matter. It would be 
advisable to leave the neighboring valleys and to locate rather on the 
elevations in order to escape submergence by the mud lava, as was 
the fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Yesuvius, adds M. Landes, 
has made but few victims. Pompeii was vacated in time, and there 
have been but few bodies found in the engulfed cities. 

Conclusion : The Montagne Pelee presents no more danger to 
the inhabitants of Saint Pierre than does Yesuvius to those of Naples. 

An editorial note, which is less confident in its tone 
than other notes that had previously been published, sup- 
plements the interview with the following : " Nevertheless, 
this morning, the mountain being uncovered, the Morne 
Lacroix shows in its lower part, on the side of the Etang 
Plein, a gash one hundred metres in length and forty 
metres in height, making possible the fall of this promi- 
nence, and with it the production of an earth tremor." 



76 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEEEE 

The other events that are chronicled in this last issue 
of the Saint Pierre paper throw a vivid light upon the con- 
ditions prevailing in the surroundings, and still further 
darken the mystery of the quiet resolve to abide by the 
events that were rapidly hurrying to a climax. There 
were floods and torrents of boulders, villages inundated 
and annihilated, and the ocean rising and falling in un- 
known swells. The brighter days of springtime were made 
black with the falling ash, thunder and lightning held sway 
over the mountain heights, and the air was no longer fit for 
man to breathe. Yet even in this late day, with the city 
in panic, and with the visions of destruction made real 
through the happenings of many days, the editor of Les 
Colonies asks its readers : Why this fright, and why pre- 
paring for flight ? He asks this question at the end of a 
brief editorial paragrajDh which succinctly portrays the 
condition of panic then existing, and which is as follows : 

THE PANIC AT SAINT PIERRE. 

The exodus from Saint Pierre is steadily increasing. From 
morning to evening and through the whole night one sees only hurry- 
ing people, carrying packages, trunks, and children, and directing 
their course to Fonds-Saint-Denis, Morne-d' Orange, Carbet, and else- 
where. The steamers of the Corapagnie Grirard are no longer 
empty. To give an idea of this mad flight, we give the following 
figures. The number of passengers which on the line of Fort-de- 
France was ordinarily eighty a day, has risen since three days to 
three hundred. 

We confess that we cannot understand this panic. Where could 
one be better than at Saint Pierre ? Do those who invade Fort-de- 
France believe that they will be better off there than here should the 



THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEB.KE 77 

earth begin to quake? This is a foolish error against which the 
populace should be warned. 

We hope that the opinion expressed by M. Landes in the inter- 
view which we published will reassure the most timid. 

It is difficult to analyze or to understand the motive 
that prompted the publication of this appeal. Was it really 
given out as the expression of a personal conviction in the 
security of the place? Or was it, perhaps, a pennant 
thrown to the wind to assist in the election of a candidate 
to the French Chamber of Deputies, whose battle was being 
actively fought by the editor ? The editor lies dead, and 
there is no one to answer for him. The same number of 
the journal contains the names of the members composing 
the commission that had been appointed by the Governor 
to report upon the Mont Pelee eruption. They are those 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Gerbault, chief of artillery and presi- 
dent of the commission ; M. Mirville, head chemist of the 
colonial troops ; M. Leonce, assistant engineer of colonial 
roads and bridges ; and MM. Doze and Landes, professors 
of natural science at the Lycee of Saint Pierre. It is an- 
nounced that the labors of the commission would be made 
known to the public. There was, alas ! enough to report, 
but no one to report it. 

Of the condition of affairs about Saint Pierre at this 
time Les Colonies prints the following paragraphs : 

THE PRECHEUR RIVER. 

The Precheur Eiver overflowed its banks yesterday and the day 
before, and has carried with it enormous masses of rock. A very 
curious phenomenon was noted to take place at its mouth. Sound- 



78 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEEEE 

ings made at this point yesterday indicate that a large excavation 
(cavity) has been formed. The water which had hitherto at that 
point a depth of one metre has now eight metres. The cause of this 
excavation has not been ascertained. 

THE RIVIERE DES PERES. 

A similar condition, the result of a terrible overflow, is found at 
the mouth of the Riviere des Peres. Yesterday evening, at about 
seven o'clock, the flood increased and was flowing with dark water, 
which was thought to be a simple rise brought on by the rains. 
Presently there came a torrent which swept with it great quantities 
of bamboo, and later, trees and giant blocks of rocks, which are still 
to be seen in the bed of the stream. The bridge of the estate of Per- 
rinelle has disappeared, buried, as it were, beneath the boulders of 
rock. If the walls of the property had not been fortunately strong 
enough to resist the pressure, the stables would have been carried 
away by the torrent. This first overflow lasted until about ten 
o'clock, when it began to diminish, only to commence again at two 
o'clock in the morning. 

It is to be reported that at its discharge the water of the river is 
engulfed in the enormous cavity which has been cut at this point, 
and that it carries down with it all the vegetable and mineral debris 
which it has swept up in its course. A little beyond, the current reap- 
pears at the surface of the sea, still laden with this debris. 

THE OVERFLOW OF THE ROXELANE. 

The Roxelane overflowed in its turn at about seven o'clock yester- 
day evening. This sudden rise was due to the heavy fall of rain on 
the surrounding heights. The river holds in suspension all the ash 
that it has caught up, and is consequently of a dark color. Great 
quantities of dead fish have been observed at its mouth. 

AT BASSE-POINTE. 

The river of Basse-Pointe has overflowed since yesterday and 
flows with black water. It is reported — but we have no means of 



THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEEEE 



79 



confirming the report, as the telegraph wires are everywhere broken 
— that several houses have been carried away by the waters. 

AT LORRAIN. 

The Capot, whose waters have been slightly discolored, is now 
flowing so muddy that the mouth of the river is full of dead fish. 




Photo. Heilprin 



BASSE-POINTE— MAY 30, 1902 



About one hundred and fifty kilos of dead and torpid fish have been 
taken from the irrigating canal of Vive. 



MUDDY RAINS. 

Yesterday, throughout most of the day, there fell in the north 
a fine blackish rain, which was so charged with ash as to make the 
carrying of an umbrella a matter of discomfort. 



80 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIEEEE 

A RESCUE. 

A fisherman named Thomas assisted M. Eenus in the rescue 
which we reported yesterday, and which was of a particularly peril- 
ous nature. The boat which contained MM. Dupuis-Nouille the 
younger (fils), Louis Claude, Elysee Fleurisson and three other pas- 
sengers, and was manned by M. Stephane Larade, was upset and 
broken by the muddy torrent and the numerous tree-trunks that 
were swept along with it. 

THE DEAD. 

Contrary to reports that had been circulated, the body of Mile. 
Pauline Fleurisson has not yet been recovered. We have to report 
among the dead two children of M. St.-Just Prosper, one still at the 
breast and the other sick, who were in a boat near to that of M. 
Penus. 

Following these news-notes is a brief list giving the names 
of subscribers to a general relief fund, and the amount 
of subscriptions that had up till then been made. A last 
balance shows eight hundred and fifty-eight francs, fifty 
centimes, to which 107.75 francs are now added, making 
a total of 966.25 francs. On another page of this same 
number of Les Colonies is a belated account of an ascent 
of Mont Pelee made on Sunday, April 27, by MM. Boulin, 
Waddy, Decord, Bouteuil, Ange, and Eugene Berte, which 
shows in sufficiently plain language the critical condition 
which had been reached by the volcano. Although this 
account appears at so late a date, and is edited, it cannot be 
assumed that it had intentionally been suppressed by the 
editor, who had before this published many alarming re- 
ports of occurrences that were taking place. It may be 
that he attached little importance to the narrative, and 



THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIBEEE 81 

perhaps it had not before been submitted in official form. 
The journal makes the announcement that the Day of 
the Ascension being on the morrow, the stenographic 
courses, as well as the adult course which was planned for 
the following Friday, would be postponed until Thursday, 
May 15. The editor then adds for his own paper : 

" Our offices being closed to-morrow, the next issue will 
appear on Friday." 

Saint Pierre knew no further Friday, and even of the 
Thursday it had but a few short hours. It knew not on 
this day the fate that awaited it on the morrow, and it 
clung to the hope that a good end would still come. The 
city went to sleep hoping but fearing, fearing and not know- 
ing ; and it was the last sleep, except that of eternal death, 
which the city had. 

The 8th of May brought little welcome to Saint 
Pierre. Pelee's thunders had ceased for a while, but the 
hope that this gave was only to the wakeful few, for already 
at four o'clock, two hours before the shadows of night had 
lifted, an ominous cloud could be seen flowing out to sea, 
followed in its train by streaks of fiery cinders. At half- 
past six the Roraima, her decks turned to hoary gray by 
the ash that had fallen over them, came into port, taking 
her place with the eighteen other good craft that at this 
time lay in the roadstead. She anchored to her last 
berth. 

The sun had risen in its course perhaps twenty degrees 
above the horizon when the roaring of the dark-shadowed 
mountain began anew. Hundreds of agonized people had 



82 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIERRE 

gathered to their devotions in the cathedral and the cathe- 
dral square, this being the Day of the Ascension, but prob- 
ably there were not many among them who did not feel 
that the tide of the world had turned, for even through the 
atmosphere, of the sainted bells the fiery missiles were being 
hurled to warn of destruction. The fate of the city and of 
its inhabitants had already been sealed. 

The big hand of the clock of the Hopital Militaire had 
just reached the minute mark of seven-fifty when a great 
brown cloud was seen to issue from the side of the volcano, 
followed almost immediately by a cloud of vapory black- 
ness, which separated from it, and took a course downward 
to the sea. Deafening detonations from the interior pre- 
ceded this appearance, and a lofty white pennant was seen 
to rise from the summit of the volcano. With wild fury 
the black cloud rolled down the mountain slope, pressing 
closely the contours of the valley along which had pre- 
viously swept the mud-flow that overwhelmed the Usine 
Guerin, and spreading fan-like to the sea. In two minutes 
or less it had reached the doomed city, a flash of blinding 
intensity parted its coils, and Saint Pierre was ablaze. The 
clock of the Hopital Militaire was halted at seven-fifty-two 
— a historic time-mark among the ruins, the recorder of 
one of the greatest catastrophic events that are written in 
the history of the world. 

Thus had Pelee done its work. The mountain that 
only a few days before had been clothed with all but pri- 
meval forest nearly to its summit crown, was largely a 
desert waste, scarred with burned timber, gray with ash and 



THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIERRE 83 

water, and bleeding with black mud. Its waters, charged 
to many times their natural force by the volcano's steam- 
cloud, had graven deep channels into its flanks, and were 
pouring their rock debris into villages and across habitations 
which the volcano itself had spared. Precheur lay beside 
an avalanche of boulders, vainly searching for a part of 
the beautiful meadow upon which formerly grazed its goats 
and cattle. The church stands with its half torn away, but 
that which remains is more than is left to most of the 
houses. In Basse Pointe boulders of eight feet and more 
lie about the rubbled walls, and over the bridge of the 
Riviere Basse Pointe flows the turbulent mountain torrent 
that before this had meekly followed a rivulet's bed. 

In and about Saint Pierre the work of death and de- 
struction was accomplished in a few minutes. Thirty 
thousand bodies lay among the ruins to tell the story of 
that terrible day, turned to brown and black crusts — some 
showing signs of a momentary struggle, the greater number 
without evidence of any kind to indicate that they had 
stirred after the fiery blast had once struck them. In the 
houseways and in the streets, it was the same reading of 
the almost instantaneous death. The burning buildings, 
we are told by Captain Freeman, of the Roddam, stood out 
from the surrounding darkness like black shadows. All 
this time the mountain was roaring and shaking, and in the 
intervals between these terrifying sounds could be heard the 
cries of despair and agony from the thousands who were 
perishing. A few living forms, lit up by the lurid light of 
the conflagration, were distinguishable running distractedly 



84 THE LAST DAY OF SAINT PIERRE 

about the beach, only to meet death awaiting them at e very- 
turn. Day had suddenly turned into night, but this night 
brought with it no calm. 

The final details in the passing of Saint Pierre were the 
torrential rain that followed closely upon the destruction 
and the general conflagration which continued for several 
days. At the end of this time the city was laid to smoul- 
dering ruins, coated with ash-paste, and looking as if built 
of adobe plaster. What had before been the vivid coloring 
of houses of the tropics was now an ashen gray — the color 
of earth, cold, bleak and burned. Centuries seemingly had 
passed between yesterday and to-day. 



VI 

VICAR-GENERAL PAREL'S CHRONICLE 

It was my pleasure, when at Vive, to meet M. Parel, 
Vicar-General of Martinique, who at the time of the de- 
struction of Saint Pierre was officiating in the place of the 
then absent Bishop of the diocese. The day-by-day record 
of events that were then transpiring, and which M. Parel 
communicated to the Bishop, paints with deep emotion the 
incidents of the appalling cataclysm, and furnishes some 
of the most remarkable chapters written in the history of 
any event. M. Parel has kindly placed at my service a 
copy of his note-book entries, and given permission for their 
translation and publication. They appear here in full. 

" Fort-de-France, May, 1902. 
" Moistseigneue : 

"Such a catastrophe as this is utterly unheard of; it 
has no parallel in history. Yet despite the general con- 
sternation that prevails, I shall send you a daily summary 
of events. You are familiar with the configuration of the 
mass of Mont Pelee. The mountain commands the entire 
northern part of the island, enclosing numerous valleys at 
its base, and is the source of many streams, here somewhat 
inaccurately called rivers, which course in all directions 
from Saint Pierre to Grande Anse. You are aware that 
Morne Lacroix (thirteen hundred and fifty metres in alti- 
tude) is its highest peak, plainly visible in clear weather 

85 



86 YICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEOKCCLE 

from Saint Pierre, and that at its base lies the old crater 
known as Etang Sec — Dry Pond — in contradistinction to 
another lake situated on the opposite slope, the waters of 
which are always high. 

" Friday, April 25. 
"On Friday morning, April 25, although the weather 
was very clear, the crest of the mountain was capped with 
dazzling white vapor. As at six-thirty in the morning I 
boarded the ship leaving Saint Pierre, where I had spent the 
previous day, and set out for home, I had an opportunity 
to admire the spectacle that presented itself. Despatches 
announcing a volcanic eruption had preceded my arrival 
at Fort-de-France. The occurrence excited everybody's 
wonder. Excursionists immediately set out for the crater, 
which for so many centuries had slumbered peacefully, and 
had but once, in 1851, given signs of existence by a harm- 
less rain of ashes which fell over night on Saint Pierre. 
The Fathers of the College were not among the last to reach 
the mountain. From the summit of Morne Lacroix, they 
discovered that the Etang Sec, which inclines its basin- 
shaped bowl towards Saint Pierre, was filling up with boiling 
water and emitting a sulphurous smell. 

" Friday, May 2. 
"Eight days later the nature of the eruption had 
changed. Instead of vapor the mountain was now vomit- 
ing ashes. At six o'clock in the morning, I received 
the following despatch from the Curate of Le Precheur: 
' Serious volcanic eruption ; since morning we have been 
under ashes ; we ask for prayers.' 



VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 87 

" At half-past eleven the following night, the city of 
Saint Pierre awoke to the noise of frightful detonations, and 
to one of the most extraordinary spectacles of nature, — a 
volcano in full eruption discharging an enormous column of 
black smoke, traversed by flashes of lightning, and accom- 
panied by ominous rumblings. A few moments later a rain 
of ashes poured down upon the city, and also, though in 
less degree, upon Fort-de-France and the remainder of the 
island. 

" May 3. 

"At dawn on Saturday morning, the whole settlement 
found ashes lying thick about it, penetrating even into the 
houses. As another despatch, more alarming than that of 
the previous day, had reached me from Le Precheur, I left 
at eight o'clock for Saint Pierre. I found the city covered 
with ashes as if with gray snow. Thick wreaths of black 
smoke hurled themselves upward. At intervals of six hours 
the cannonading of the mountain redoubled in intensity. In 
a downpour of ashes, which spread a strong odor of sulphur, 
I visited Sainte Philomene, Le Precheur and Morne Rouge, 
the places nearest the volcano. The villages were filled 
with country people fleeing from the hills to the coast. The 
churches remained crowded ; the curates baptized, listened 
to confession, and attempted to sustain the courage of the 
terrified people. I endeavored to reassure the inhabitants. 
In the afternoon there was a frightful panic in the midst of 
the ceremonies at the Cathedral. With outstretched arms 
the people besought the priests for absolution. The colleges, 
the Lycee, the schools, were disbanded. 



88 VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 

" May 4. 
" On this day the wind changed and the rain of ashes 
moved towards the north and poured down upon Ajoupa- 
Bouillon, on Basse-Pointe, on Macouba and on Grande 
Riviere. Saint Pierre breathed more freely for a moment. 

" May 5. 

" Since morning the Riviere Blanche, so called from the 
milky iridescence of its waters, which had been for some 
days rising in an alarming manner, suddenly became a 
threatening, muddy torrent, whose turbulence attracted all. 
At the same time, a column of vapor rolled down from the 
valley in the flank of the crater. ' A new crater is forming,' 
was the cry. No, it was an avalanche of black, smoking 
mud vomited forth by the crater ; swelled by successive 
discharges it became a rolling mountain, as yet unseen while 
it tore its path through the deep gorge, but the moment it 
approached the delta in which was situated the Usine 
Guerin, its approach was betrayed by a great roar and by 
a column of vapor. Those who witnessed the spectacle 
shouted impetuously, ' run for your life !' It was too late. 
In one brief instant, the avalanche had engulfed the factory 
and the villas of the proprietors and employes alike. Over 
a radius of several hundred metres, and even over the 
neighboring hills, spread incandescent mud, several metres 
in thickness. M. Guerin fils, his wife, M. Duquesne, the 
head overseer, and twenty-five employes or servants were 
overwhelmed. The chimney of the factory, slightly bent, 
bears solitary witness to the disaster. This was about noon. 

"At the same instant, along the whole roadstead of 



YICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 89 

Saint Pierre, the sea receded as though affrighted. It left 
the ship Girard, which plies between Fort-de-France and 
Saint Pierre, high and dry. Then suddenly the ocean, 
rising mountain high, rushed back, breaking over the Place 
Bertin, and even over some of the principal streets, and 
spreading alarm far and wide throughout the city. The 
inhabitants fled for refuge to the heights. Twenty minutes 
later calm reigned once more. 

" When the news reached Fort-de-France, the Suchet 
was instantly put into service by the Governor, who was 
anxious to visit the scene of disaster. I attempted to 
secure passage, but was courteously refused, as it was feared 
that my presence might only increase the panic. 

" Tuesday, May 6. 
" I could not leave, therefore, before the departure of 
the regular boat at eight o'clock on the following day. 
Accompanied by the Abbe Le Breton, I went to the Biviere 
Blanche. This stream, now a raging torrent, crashed along, 
carrying with it broken rocks, trunks of trees, and smoking 
mud. With its trail of smoke, it resembled a locomotive 
plunging headlong into the sea. I observed the slopes of 
the volcano covered with mud and rock and ploughed into 
vertical gashes by the waters which poured from its mouth. 
The two peaks encircling it formed a valley which collected 
the waters, whence they dashed forth in zigzags, to form the 

seething torrent before us. 

" May 7. 
" Since four o'clock in the morning, when I was awak- 
ened in my room at the Seminaire-College by loud detona- 



90 VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 

tions, I have been watching the most extraordinary pyro- 
technic display : — at one moment a fiery crescent gliding- 
over the surface of the crater, at the next long, perpendicu- 
lar gashes of flame piercing the column of smoke, and then 
a fringe of fire, encircling the dense clouds rolling above 
the furnace of the crater. Two glowing craters from which 
fire issued, as if from blast furnaces, were visible during 
half an hour, the one on the right a little above the other. 

" I distinguished clearly four kinds of noises ; first, the 
claps of thunder, which followed the lightning at intervals 
of twenty seconds ; then the mighty muffled detonations of 
the volcano, like the roaring of many cannon fired simulta- 
neously ; third, the continuous rumbling of the crater, 
which the inhabitants designated the ' roaring of the lion ;' 
and then last, as though furnishing the bass for this 
gloomy music, the deep noise of the swelling waters, of all 
the torrents which take their source upon the mountain, 
generated by an overflow such as had never yet been seen. 
This immense rising of thirty streams at once, without one 
drop of water having fallen on the seacoast, gives some 
idea of the cataracts which must pour down upon the sum- 
mit from the storm-clouds gathered around the crater. 
When day lighted up the roadstead of Saint Pierre, a cry 
of amazement arose. As far as the eye could reach, it was 
covered with floating islets, spoils of the mountain, the 
forests and the fields, with trunks of gigantic trees, pumice- 
stone, wreckage of every sort, discharged by the overflow- 
ing torrents. 

" I was obliged to go to Sainte Philomene and to Le 



VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 91 

Precheur to give to the curates of those two places, along 
with my encouragement, the aid which I had promised 
them for their parishioners. But there were no longer any 
bridges or roads. Accompanied by Father Fuzier and 
Father Ackermann, I made my way in a boat through the 
dangerous wreckage, which rendered our passage slow and 
difficult. The point of the Biviere Blanche, of Lamarre, 
and of the Precheur disappeared in the sea through suc- 
cessive erosions, and under the combined shock of the 
waves and the furious torrents. All those diluvial waters, 
black and laden with mud, in tumbling into the sea, instead 
of covering it as in stormy days with a muddy coat, barely 
tinged it with a light yellow streak, and then seemed to 
engulf themselves with their banks as if they were molten 
lead. Every incident of that sad vigil was extraordinary. 
I found the two men worn out with fatigue, pale from 
want of sleep — always in their church, busy in preparing 
their people as though for a great sacrifice, but full of ardor 
and of courage, and, under the very jaws of the volcano, 
faithful to their trust. Half of their parishioners had fled 
to Saint Pierre, where the barracks and the schools had 
been put at their service by the Governor. 

" As for myself, believing it my duty to return home for 
Ascension Day, I resisted all persuasions to remain and 
took the boat from Saint Pierre at half past two, promising 
to return the following evening, or at the latest on Friday 
morning. The boat was filled with people fleeing from 
Saint Pierre. I stepped out of the row-boat which carried 
me over from Le Precheur just in time to embark. Was 



92 YICAK-GENERAL PAKEL'S CHEONICLE 

my good angel guarding me ? Or would it not have been 
better to die than to survive ? 



" Thursday, May 8, Ascension Day. 

" This date should be written in blood. Towards four 
o'clock in the morning a violent thunderstorm burst over 
Fort-de-France. Towards eight o'clock the horizon on the 
north and in the direction of the volcano was black as ink. 
The clouds raced across the sky towards the northwest. The 
sky grew darker and darker. Suddenly I heard a noise as 
of hail falling upon the roof and on the leaves of the trees. 
A great murmur arose in the city. 

" At the church, where eight o'clock mass had begun, a 
frightful panic took place. The priest alone remained. At 
the same moment through the night which shut us in thun- 
der pealed, pealed continuously, appallingly. The sea re- 
ceded three times for a distance of several hundred metres. 
The boat which was leaving for Saint Pierre returned 
affrighted. I went out on my balcony to see what was hap- 
pening, and I noticed it was being covered by a hail of 
stones and ashes still hot. People stood petrified at their 
doors, or rushed distractedly through the streets. All this 
lasted" for about a quarter of an hour, a quarter of an hour 
of terror. 

" But what was taking place at Saint Pierre ? No one 
dared to think. . . . Communication by telephone had been 
cut off abruptly in the middle of a word. Some asserted 
that they saw above the mountains which separated us from 
Saint Pierre a column of fire rising to the sky, and then 



VICAR-GENERAL PAEEL'S CHRONICLE 93 

sj)reading in all directions. The most terrible anxiety filled 
our hearts. At eleven o'clock the ship Le Marin set out 
to reconnoitre, and was witness to the most appalling spec- 
tacle imaginable. Saint Pierre was a vast brazier of fire. 
The news which burst upon the city at about one o'clock 
sounded like the funeral knell of Martinique and evoked an 
indescribable cry of horror. I shall not attempt to depict 
such scenes ; it requires the pen of a Dante, or the elo- 
quence of a Jeremiah. I am told that a ship is about to 
leave to collect the wounded. I am fortunate enough to 
obtain passage in it with one of my vicars. The police and 
the gendarmes cannot restrain the crowd which struggles to 
embark. The expedition is composed of the Prosecutor of 
the republic, of an officer, and of a platoon of marines. It 
is impossible to believe in the reality of so terrible a disas- 
ter. We cling to every theory that permits us to hope. At 
least, we think, a large part of the population will have had 
time to flee. When, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, 
we round the last promontory which separates us from what 
was once the magnificent panorama of Saint Pierre, we 
suddenly perceive at the opposite extremity of the road- 
stead the Riviere Blanche, with its crest of vapor, rushing 
madly, as on the previous day, into the sea. Then a little 
farther out blazes a great American packet, which arrived 
on the scene just in time to be overwhelmed in the catastro- 
phe. Nearer the shore two other ships are in flames. The 
coast is strewn with wreckage, with the keels of the over- 
turned boats, all that remains of the twenty or thirty ships 
which lay at anchor here the day before. All along the 



94 VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 

quays, for a distance of two hundred metres, piles of lum- 
ber are burning. Here and there around the city, upon the 
heights and as far as Fonds-Core, fires can be seen through 
the smoke. 

" But Saint Pierre, in the morning throbbing with life, 
thronged with people, is no more. Its ruins stretch before 
us, wrapped in their shroud of smoke and ashes, gloomy 
and silent, a city of the dead. Our eyes seek out the in- 
habitants fleeing distracted, or returning to look for the 
dead. Nothing to be seen. No living soul appears in 
this desert of desolation, encompassed by appalling silence. 
When at last the cloud lifts, the mountain appears in the 
background, its slopes, formerly so green, now clad in a 
thick mantle of snow, resembling an Alpine landscape in 
winter. Through the cloud of ashes and of smoke dif- 
fused in the atmosphere, the sun breaks wan and dim, as 
it is never seen in our skies, and throws over the whole 
picture a sinister light, suggestive of a world beyond the 
grave. 

"With what profound emotion I raise my hand above 
these thirty thousand souls so suddenly mowed down, buried 
in this terrible tomb to sleep the sleep of eternity. 

" Beloved and unfortunate victims ! Priests, old men 
and women, sisters of charity, children, young girls, fallen 
so tragically, we weep for you, we the unhappy survivors 
of this desolation ; while you, purified by the particular 
virtue and the exceptional merits of this horrible sacrifice, 
have risen on this day of the triumph of your God to 
triumph with Him and to receive from His own hand 



VICAB-GENEBAL PABEL'S CHBONICLE 95 

the crown of glory. It is in this hope that we seek the 
strength to survive you. 

" In this desolation the troop of soldiers sent to the res- 
cue could do nothing. We returned, utterly dispirited, to 
Carbet. New sensations and indescribable scenes awaited us 
there. Here, in a single house, are heaped up fifteen bodies. 
In another spot are dying men, horribly burned. Women 
and young girls, their flesh tumefied and falling into shreds, 
die as they reach the ship. Fathers mourn their children, 
wives their husbands. Many of these are returning from 
the country, ignorant, as yet, of the horrible truth. We 
wished to hide it from them, but they divined it. The cries 
which ring out break the heart. Many lost their reason. 
For four hours embarkation on a dismantled sea goes on 
continually. The Suchet and the Pouyer-Quertier come to 
our aid. We reached Fort-de-France at ten o'clock in the 
evening. 

" It is time to explain to you how the terrible catastrophe 
occurred. This, however, is not quite so easy as you may 
imagine ; firstly, because none of those whom the scourge 
struck escaped to tell the tale, and secondly, because those 
whom the scourge spared were doubtless too much over- 
come by the scene which they had witnessed to agree en- 
tirely in their descriptions. Here, however, is all that I 
was able to ascertain as fact : 

" Since early morning of this day, the 8th of May, the 
rumblings of the volcano grew more disquieting, the dis- 
charges of ashes blacker and denser. The anxiety of the 
people about the mountain and in the city, then in gala 



96 VICAR-GENERAL PAREL'S CHRONICLE 

state, increased from moment to moment. Suddenly at ten 
minutes of eight, as the hospital clock — providentially pre- 
served among the ruins, as if to mark for all time the in- 
stant at which the justice of God was meted out — bears 
witness, a tremendous detonation resounded throughout the 
entire colony and an immense mass was seen bursting forth 
from the crater and hurling itself upward with extraordi- 
nary velocity. The black coils of the appalling column, 
rent by electric discharges, unrolled, expanded and dissi- 
pated, and, impelled by an invisible force, moved on to 
discharge, at a distance, the incandescent matter contained 
within them. But suddenly, from the midst of these dense 
masses, a spout of fire detaches itself, beats down upon 
Saint Pierre like a hurricane, and envelops the entire city, 
its roadstead and suburbs, from the promontory of Carbet 
to Morne Folic, near Le Precheur, as if with the meshes of 
a horrible net. On the surface about the city it describes a 
regular curve of from two to three kilometres. It is impos- 
sible to give any idea of the atmospheric disturbances cre- 
ated by this hurricane of fire. What did it contain ? Matter 
in fusion ? Gas ? Boiling vapors ? All of these at once ? 
God knows ! ' Everything went down before it,' said to 
me one who witnessed the sight from a favorable po- 
sition, 'and at the same instant, everything took fire.' 
Deep night fell over the land, but it was immediately illu- 
mined by the dread fires of this veritable hell. From the 
grass of the meadows, from the crops of the countryside, to 
the great trees, to the houses and buildings of the city and 
its suburbs, to the very ships anchored in the roadstead, 



VICAR-CENERAL PARELS CHRONICLE 97 

over earth and over sea, raged one vast conflagration, con- 
suming thirty thousand human lives. In this awful tu- 
mult, how terrible must have been the moment of agony 
of a whole people ! What pen can ever paint the lamenta- 
tions which ascended at that moment from the heart of a 
dying city to the bosom of a merciful God ! 

"While the whirlwind of fire shot out by the crater 
moved towards the south and the west, increasing its 
destructive force aud spreading its ravages, another phe- 
nomenon, worthy of notice, stopped it in its course. Two 
powerful atmospheric currents, laden with rain, held in 
reserve up to that moment by some unseen but providential 
hand, suddenly moved from the southeast and from the 
north, and precipitated themselves on both sides of the flam- 
ing spot. Circumscribing it with a clearly defined line, they 
cooled it to such a degree that we could see people about 
the line of demarcation struck on one side by burning 
missiles, while on the other side, and at a distance of only 
a few feet, nothing fell but the rain of muddy ashes and 
heated stones, which descended in all directions. 

" Whatever natural explanation of these phenomena we 
seek, we are always confronted by a combination of truly 
mysterious circumstances. It is evident, however, that a 
power capable of regulating the forces and laws of nature 
presided over the cataclysm, and that after having for a 
moment liberated the unrestrained force of evil, at the next 
it commanded the homicidal cloud to cease its destruction. 
' So far shalt thou go, and no farther,' it said. ' Here shalt 
thou break the tide of thy anger.' 



98 



YICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 



" Friday. May 9. 

" I have just sent two priests, Father Woetgli and Abbe 

Auber, with the expedition to Saint Pierre to pronounce 

absolution and sprinkle holy water over the bodies which 

are already being buried or cremated. While I was thus 




THROWN STATUE OF OUR LADY OF THE WATCH 



engaged, the French mail-coach arrived, containing the 
Abbe Duval, the Vicar-General of Guadeloupe, and Abbe 
Amieux, Curate of the Cathedral of Basse-Terre, whom Mon- 
seigneur CanajDpe, as soon as the disaster became known, 
kindly sent to us, laden with the precious burden of his 
condolence and sympathy for Martinique. I shall attempt, 
Monseigneur, to draw up the balance-sheet of the disaster. 



VICAR-GENERAL PAREL'S CHRONICLE 99 

"According to the statistics of the parishes of Saint 
Pierre, entered in the or do of the diocese, the city had a 
population of about twenty-seven thousand souls. Adding 
to this number about two thousand refugees from the sur- 
rounding communes who sought safety here, at least five 
hundred sailors from the ships anchored in the roadstead, 
and finally the thousand victims in the parishes of Carbet 
and Le Precheur, we obtain a total of more than thirty 
thousand dead. Taking into account the fact that a large 
number of inhabitants, especially women, had for two or 
three days prior to the disaster been leaving Saint Pierre, 
I feel that my estimate of the dead of thirty thousand is 
as nearly accurate as possible. 

"It was not the will of God, Monseigneur, that the 
Bishop of the diocese should be the principal victim. And 
who, among us, does not thank God for your providential 
departure ? 

"What need is there to name among the victims of 
this horrible sacrifice the chief of the colony, M. Mouttet, 
his worthy companion, Colonel Gerbault, or the twenty- 
four priests whose names you already know; — eleven of 
the secular clergy, thirteen reverend fathers of the order 
of Saint Esprit ? What need is there to mark out for your 
pity all that group of young vicars, of young but distin- 
guished professors, Le Breton, Bertot, Anguetil ; the rev- 
erend fathers, Le Galbo, Demaerel, Fuzier, Ackermann, 
and that sainted company of seventy-one religious women, 
twenty-eight sisters of Saint Paul de Chartres, thirty-one 
sisters of Saint Joseph de Cluny, ten sisters of the Deliver- 
LoFC. 



100 VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 

ance ? And how many more ! Of the many professors of the 
Lycee but five remained ; of the colonial boarding-school, 
the directress alone survived. All those who escaped death 
happened, of course, to be away from Saint Pierre. Digni- 
taries, magistrates, merchants, honorable and Christian 
families all had fallen before the destructive scythe. 

" I said before that the colleges, schools and pensionnats 
were disbanded. There remained, however, the two orphan 
asylums, the workshop and the asylum of Saint Anne. 
Teachers and scholars alike were engulfed. 

" This is the moral balance-sheet, one which can never 
be sufficiently deplored. 

" Saturday, May 10. 

"As a result of the loss of the chief magistrate of the 
colony, and of so many other civil and military officials, 
the Government is in a state of disorganization. The head 
of the Board of Health declares that there is not the least 
danger in waiting until Monday, the 12th, to begin the 
cremation of the bodies which lie buried beneath the rub- 
bish. And in addition — who can believe it ? — preparations 
for the elections on the morrow, at least in the district of 
Fort-de-France, are going on ; that of Saint Pierre no 
longer exists 

" M. Lhuerre, the General Secretary, is by decree tem- 
porarily filling the office of Governor. The gentlemen 
from Guadeloupe and I, thanks to the kindness of the 
provisional Governor, secure passage on the Suchet, which 
sails for Saint Pierre to examine the vaults of the bank. 



VICAB-GENEKAL PAEEL'S CHBONICLE 101 

The commander and the officers of the Suchet welcome us 
very politely. 

" Off the coast of Saint Pierre, the hull of the Ameri- 
can ship is still burning, emitting a strong smell of putre- 
fying flesh. Armed with disinfectants, we disembark at 
the Place Bertin, a short time since so full of life, and 
walk over the wreckage. It is a huge mass of rubbish 
heaped up in indescribable confusion. Here and there 
tumefying bodies, horribly contorted, show signs of terrible 
agony in their twisted and contracted limbs. Beneath a 
tamarind-tree, whose branches could not protect him, lies 
the body of an unfortunate man stretched on his back, his 
head thrown clown, his hand raised to heaven in supplica- 
tion, his entrails bared to view, his limbs torn and 
shrivelled. That gesture of supplication alone consoles 
us for the heartrending picture. God was merciful to him. 
May he rest in peace ! At my suggestion, a photograph 
was taken of the body. 

" We find difficulty in reaching the Cathedral, as it is 
impossible to recognize the streets. The interiors of the 
houses, some of whose walls still stand, are blazing and 
smoking braziers. The heaps of stone, iron, lime, ashes 
and rubbish of all sorts burn our feet. It is danger- 
ous to touch the pieces of charred wall, which crumble at 
the slightest pressure. One of the square towers of the 
Cathedral, with its four bells, is still erect, cracked through- 
out and quite unapproachable. The tower on the left fell 
to the ground with its great bell. The statue of the Virgin 
which decorated the facade appeared to lie intact among 



102 VICAR-GENERAL PAEEL'S CHRONICLE 

the rubbish in front of the Cathedral. The walls of the 
church, with the exception of some portions of the apse, 
are no longer in existence. We forced our way into it 
through the Rue du College, and found several bodies half 
hidden under the ruins. Here, as everywhere, a large part 
of the victims are buried under the heaps of rubbish. 

" We could not reach the altar, whose tomb seems intact, 
although hidden beneath the confused mass of stones and 
ashes. I regret that the director of the mission could not 
grant me the two men I asked for to assist me in making 
excavations. But who would think that men, worse than 
jackals, coming from no one knows where, would prey 
upon the unhappy city and complete by pillage the work 
of destruction begun by fire. 

"What shall I tell you of the parsonage? All this 
block of buildings is practically levelled, and beneath its 
ruins are buried our dear brethren, on whom we cannot 
even bestow the honors of sepulture. I entered the Epis- 
copal building by the wall opening on the savane. I 
could have left it by walking out over the houses of the 
Rue Coraille. Some portions of the walls at either end of 
your Episcopal Palace remain, Monseigneur ; the middle 
portion is razed to the ground. A piece of the wall of the 
chapel is still intact, also. The safe, with all that it con- 
tained at the time of your departure, is charred. There 
your three servants perished. I could not find them. The 
trees of the plantation are torn, bent towards the south and 
partly burned. On my return to the Place Bertin, I at- 
tempted to distinguish the church of the Fort, but in vain. 



VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 103 

The Seminaire College is completely wiped out. I am 
told that in the Centre it is impossible to distinguish the 
spot where the church stood. Balance-sheet of our losses : 
— Your Episcopal residence, your Cathedral, all the 
churches of the city of Sainte Philomene and of Trois 
Ponts, your magnificent Seminaire-College, the workshop, 
the Orphan Asylum, the parsonages, all the coffers of the 
factory and the Episcopate, the coffers of the ecclesiastical 
pension lists, etc. 

" After having secured the treasures of the bank, the 
Bucket was commissioned to aid in the evacuation of Le 
Precheur. In a heavy rain of volcanic ash, two hundred 
agitated people embarked. Two boats filled with women 
and children capsized at the foot of the ship. The sailors 
of the Suchet, with heroic bravery, rescued all. 

"May 11 and following days. 

"It is impossible, Monseigneur, to describe all our 
anxiety and perplexity, and our hardships. I shall resume 
my account of the days following the catastrophe by 
relating the principal facts. 

" While fire was devastating Saint Pierre, Le Precheur 
was deluged by water. At eight o'clock in the morning 
the Precheur River overflowed the parsonage, the town 
and the church, which are now buried under one or two 
metres of sand. The Abbe Desprez saved the Holy 
Sacraments, but could not perform the Ascension Day 
ceremony. All of the parishioners who remained were 
gathered together on the 12th, and he and the mayor were 



104 VICAE-GENEKAL PAKEL'S CHEONICLE 

the last to leave the place, which was no longer habi- 
table. 

"Monday, May 19. 

" I send two priests daily, with a party of men engaged 
in cremating the bodies, to say a blessing over these poor 
remains, but for the past three days the mission has re- 
turned without being able to disembark. The violence of 
the volcano appears to be increasing in intensity, and the 
mountain is vomiting out masses of ashes which cover the 
colony. To-day the mission was able to land, but the 
rally was sounded immediately. A severe eruption took 
place. 

" Here in Fort-de-France, twenty-five kilometres as the 
bird flies from the crater, we are living in the midst of 
ashes, and, I may add, in a continual state of excitement. 
Basse-Pointe, after several reprisals, was finally inundated 
by the waters of its river. Several houses were carried 
away and there was one victim. 

" All the bridges from Basse-Pointe to Grande-Piviere 
are down. These places are completely deserted. There 
is no one remaining at Grande-Piviere or Macouba. The 
curates of both these towns are here. The curates of 
Basse-Pointe and Ajoupa-Bouillon spend the night at 
Grande-Anse, and return home every morning to hold 
mass. There they remain the entire day to aid the few 
who have not yet deserted their homes. 

"As to Father Mary, he very courageously remains 
practically alone in Morne Pouge, beneath the jaws of the 
monster and under the guidance of Notre Dame de la 



VICAE-GENEEAL PAEEL'S CHEONICLE 105 

Deliverande. I wrote to congratulate him, but there was 
no longer postal connection. Should he succumb, he will 
only learn in heaven that we admire him. Fort-de-France, 
as well as the whole southern portion of the colony, is full 
of refugees. An attempt is being made to distribute them 
equally in the different townships, but we are still providing 
shelter for seven thousand. 

" Tuesday, May 20. 

" Another date for Martinique ! As on the preceding 
days, I appointed two priests to go to Saint Pierre. Will 
they finally be fortunate enough to recover the sacred 
vessels of the different churches ? Alas ! behold what has 
happened. At quarter past five, while I was dressing, I 
suddenly heard two loud detonations of the volcano, deeper 
and more prolonged, I believe, than any which have yet 
been noticed. I called to Abbe Recourse, who, since he 
gave up his home to a family of refugees, has had a room 
below mine. ' The volcano is angry,' I said ; ' something 
is about to happen.' At the same instant, in the distance, 
above the peaks of Carbet, in the direction of Mont Pelee, 
I saw, darting from a dark spot in the sky, rolling flashes 
of fire accompanied by the muffled and continuous rumble 
of thunder. 

" Then above the black spot I feaw the first coils of the 
terrible column rising upward. Again I called M. Re- 
course, ' Come and see, come qui^k !' Then together, and 
not without fear, we watched the sight. The meteor rose, 
mounting higher and higher into the sky, unfolding its 
spirals, reaching incredible heights, and then advanced 



106 VICAR-GENERAL PAEEL'S CHRONICLE 

towards us, spreading out on all sides, shrouding the loftier 
points, unrolling and unrolling until it stood directly above 
our heads. We felt that the last moment of Martinique 
had arrived. What would come next? Were we to die 
beneath the flames as had Saint Pierre, or to perish beneath 
ashes as had Pompeii ? We were prepared. We con- 
tinued to watch the vast cloud and its dense whirls, which 
the rising sun bathed with red. I was on my knees before 
the window, awaiting the will of God. Suddenly, just as 
in a theatre the curtain is drawn across the stage, a vapor 
cloud spread below the aerial cloud, and shut it out from 
us entirely. But the city, the city which was scarce awake, 
where was it ? First a deafening tumult and a distracted 
rush for safety. No one remains ! I am mistaken. The 
church was regarded by many as a place of refuge. The 
crowd surged to the very altars, and in what costumes ! It 
is only with the greatest difficulty that the two vicars, 
selected to go with the mission to Saint Pierre, can continue 
mass. The third vicar ordered the five or six thousand 
people assembled to pray with arms crossed on their breasts. 
The sight is indescribably touching. These are in very 
truth scenes that accompany the destruction of the world. 
A quarter of an hour at least has passed, passed in agony. 
Then follows the hail of lava and ashes. As the first 
stones fall, I look about for flames ; but I am soon reassured. 
We were frightened, that was all ; besides that we could 
make a fine collection of volcanic stones, some of them the 
size of an egg. Nearer the volcano even much larger ones 
were found. 



VICAE-GENEEAL PAEELS CHKONICLE 107 

" But though we were safe, what was the fate of the 
neighboring parishes ? The Suchet set out instantly to re- 
connoitre. 

" Its report was as follows : — ' The phenomenon which 
resulted in the destruction of Saint Pierre had been re- 
enacted and in the identical localities. Whatever walls 
still remained standing in the doomed city were again 
swept by a whirlwind of fire. Not a stone remained on top 
of another. Some houses within the circle marked out by 
the first scourge were struck and raked by the flames. 
There were no new victims. A tidal wave ravaged the 
Grande Anse of Carbet and carried away some houses. 
The people who had remained at Fonds-Saint-Denis, Car- 
bet, and Morne Vert fled towards the south. The curates 
have just arrived. I learn, too, that the brave Father 
Mary has at last left Morne Rouge. He was the last to 
depart, leading the band of gallant followers who remained 
faithful to him. A severer overflow would have destroyed 
Basse-Pointe, which was already abandoned. The exodus 
is of the entire north of the island towards the south.' 

" Wednesday, May 21. 

" The consequences of this new disaster are incalculable. 
Since yesterday, all the families who were beginning to 
regain their confidence are plunged into the deepest des- 
pondency. They are embarking by thousands for St. 
Lucia, for Guadeloupe, Trinidad, France and for America ! 

" It is no longer the exodus of the north to the south, 
but of all Martinique to foreign lands. Such, Monseigneur, 



108 



VIGAK-GENEKAL PAEEL'S CHEO^ICLE 



is the life which we lead. Whatever the reasons for which 
Providence has willed that I should witness these events, 
I can but follow the example of Father Mary and of his 
fellow priests of the northern parishes. I shall be the last 
to leave Martinique. 

"G. Parel." 




SAINT PIERRE BURNING 



VII 
AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 

Acting-Govebnor Lhuerre's official report of the 
catastrophe of the 8th of May is as follows (translated 
extract) : 

" Fort-de-France, May 11, 1902. 

" The night of the 7th-8th passed without incident ; the 
official cablegrams which arrived from Saint Pierre between 
six and eight o'clock in the morning reported the situation 
to be unchanged. It was at this time that the frightful cat- 
aclysm which overwhelmed the city and people of Saint 
Pierre took place. 

" At eight o'clock in the morning, just as the Girard- 
line steamer was about to leave the city for Saint Pierre, an 
immense mass of white clouds, rolling in gigantic spirals, 
was perceived from Fort-de- France in the direction of Mont 
Pelee; at the same instant the cable and telephone lines 
connecting Saint Pierre with the capital were broken, the 
barometer registered an abrupt fall, and a ' tidal' wave was 
felt along the coast. 

" In a few minutes clouds obscured the entire sky ; a 
rain of stones, some of them weighing twenty grammes, beat 
down upon Fort- de-France, followed by a rain of ashes 
which lasted until near eleven o'clock. The steamer 
Girard, which had left the city for Saint Pierre a quarter 
past eight, after the ' tidal ' wave, continued on its course as 

109 



HO AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 

far as the heights of Case-Pilote, which is exactly half way. 
There, stopped "by the stones and ashes which fell in con- 
siderable quantity, it turned back to return to Fort-de- 
France. 

" It set out anew towards ten o'clock (after the great ex- 
citement which had been aroused at Fort-de-France had 
calmed), but after passing the point of Carbet, a terrifying 
sight burst upon the passengers. At the base of the vol- 
cano, which was shrouded in a cloud of smoke and ashes, 
the entire coast for a distance of about five kilometres, from 
the ' Minoterie' Blaisemont, situated a little north of Car- 
bet, to Pointe-Lamarre, beyond the town of Sainte-Philo- 
mene, was in flames ; the trees as well as the isolated houses 
of the country were devoured by fire ; a dozen vessels in 
the roadstead of Saint Pierre, of which two were American 
steamers, burned at anchor. The coast seemed deserted ; on 
the ocean nothing floated but wreckage. The heat stream- 
ing from this immense conflagration prevented the boat 
from proceeding, and it returned to Fort-de-France at one 
o'clock in the afternoon, bringing with it the sinister tidings. 

" As I had had no communication with Saint Pierre 
since eight o'clock in the morning, and in view of the 
serious events which had happened so far, I ordered the 
commander of the Suchet to go there and place himself at 
the service of the Governor, M. Mouttet. The Suchet arrived 
at about half-past twelve. Towards three o'clock its com- 
mander, Le Bris, was able to land at the Place Bertin, 
which was covered with bodies. The heat which was disen- 
gaged by the smoking ruins prevented his prosecuting his 




Expl. Heilprin 



Underwood & Underwood, Stereos. Photo., New York, Copyright, 1902 



THE SILENT CITY 
From the Morne d'Orange 



APTBE THE CONFLAGRATION 111 

investigations farther. He picked up along the coast the 
wounded who had miraculously escaped, and proceeded to 
Carbet, where he also took on board the injured, who were 
removed to Fort-de-France. At three o'clock I sent a boat 
to Saint Pierre on which was the Procureur of the re- 
public, M. Lubin, who was commissioned to report the situ- 
ation to me. 

" M. Lubin landed at Saint Pierre and assured himself, 
as had also done the commander of the Suchet, that the 
entire population of the city had been wiped out. He 
finally reached Carbet, where the population of the neigh- 
boring villages, and many of the wounded who had escaped 
the disaster, had gathered. A line of transport steamers 
was organized between Carbet and Fort-de-France to carry 
the unfortunate victims speedily to the capital. 

" As to the exact circumstances which accompanied the 
catastrophe, it would be difficult to give them with pre- 
cision. It seems from the evidence gathered as well from 
the few survivors as from the people who watched the cata- 
clysm from a distance, that towards eight o'clock in the 
morning, following, doubtless, a fissure in the flanks of the 
volcano, a spout of fire burst over Saint Pierre, causing the 
instant death of the entire population and setting fire simul- 
taneously to all the houses of the city and all the ships in 
the roadstead. The opinion of all who have up to this time 
visited these scenes is that not one of the inhabitants who 
at the hour of the catastrophe were in Saint Pierre has 
escaped death. 

" The number of victims in Saint Pierre alone is esti- 



112 AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 

mated at twenty-six thousand. But to this figure must be 
added the inhabitants of the suburbs who succumbed, so 
that the entire number may without exaggeration be reck- 
oned at thirty thousand." 

To the prompt action of the officials of Fort-de-France, 
in sending vessels of inquiry and service to the scene of the 
catastrophe, is due the saving of a few lives from the ocean 
wreckage and from points immediately adjacent to the gen- 
eral destruction. The number thus brought out seems not 
positively to be known, but in most part it was composed of 
the crews, officers and others who happened to be at the time 
on board the different vessels anchored in the roadstead, 
and who immediately were thrown into or sought refuge in 
the water. Of the handful of immediate survivors from 
Saint Pierre itself, who dragged themselves or were carried 
out to points of safety on the landside, it would seem that 
nearly all ultimately succumbed, and history generally re- 
cites but a single survivor of the conflagration — the prisoner 
Ciparis. The official report of the Procureur of Martinique 
dealing with the efforts made to render assistance to the 
afflicted, and addressed to the Procureur General under date 
of May 10, gives a vivid picture of the early conditions of 
the burning city, and of the obstacles that interposed to the 
work that was contemplated : 

" I left by the steamer Rubis at half-past two in the 
. afternoon, with a company of thirty men of the troop com- 
manded by Lieutenant Tessier. . . . Among others Abbe 



AFTEE THE CONFLAGEATION 113 

Parel, accompanied by one of his vicars, took passage on 
board the ship. 

" After we had passed Case-Pilote we observed that the 
sea was strewn with wreckage, and the Rubis was obliged to 
slacken its speed in order to avoid breaking the helm. We 
also noted some groups of people. 

" We approach Carbet ; to our great astonishment there 
are comparatively few people on the shore. Saint Pierre is 
enveloped in a cloud of smoke and flames, esjDecially in the 
northern portion, known as the Fort. 

" Saint Pierre and its suburbs seem to us a heap of ashes 
and ruins. The roadstead contains nothing but an immense 
quantity of drifting wood. Two iron-clad steamers, com- 
pletely dismantled, tilted towards the land, with their boats 
partly lifted from their pegs, have become the prey of the 
flames. Not a trace of the hull of any sailing-vessel ; not 
a boat ; we see only three or four coasting vessels of Basse- 
Pointe, pirogues, their keels out of water, capsized ; on the 
coast and in the surrounding country not a living soul ! 

" A dozen people took refuge on the rocks between Saint 
Pierre and Carbet ; the launches of the Suchet went to their 
relief. We knew at once that these people belonged to the 
crews of the lost boats. 

" I asked the captain to approach as near as possible to 
Saint Pierre, and then, having a boat lowered, the lieu- 
tenant, the ensign (ship-ensign Hebert, of the Suchet), and 
I steered for the city itself. We landed a little beyond the 
Place Mouillage ; the desolation there is complete and we 
had to force our way to the Hue Bouille. 



114 AFTEE THE CONFLAGRATION 

" In this neighborhood we found bodies scattered every- 
where, some of them distended by gases, and not carbonized ; 
as to those who regained their homes, they seemed to us to 
be completely charred. It is impossible to penetrate into 
the interior and to reach the main street of the city, the 
Rue Victor Hugo. In fact, to do so would be to walk over 
a glowing brazier. 

" We reembarked and landed at the Place Bertin. 
There, too, are bodies swollen by gas, but not carbonized. 
The hands are not shrivelled ; death seems to have been 
swift and free from suffering. At this place are a dozen 
bodies, one of them, that of a woman, with a beam lying 
across her limbs. 

" The quays exist no longer ; the trunks of the trees are 
no more. The lighthouse of the Place Bertin, about twenty 
metres in height, is razed to within three metres of the 
ground. The interior staircase of iron which affords egress 
appears to have been broken. The stones which remain are 
uncharred, and the iron of the staircase has not been affected 
by the fire. The grating of the fountain is twisted ; a dis- 
torted spout still gives out water. 

"We attempted to make our way through the Rue 
Lucie, but the heat was so suffocating that we were obliged 
to abandon the effort. Regaining our ship, we set out to 
pick up the refugees of Carbet. 

" From our examination of the ruined city I conclude 
that the phenomenon which destroyed it was produced with 
such suddenness and intensity that there was no chance of 
escape ; the ships in the roadstead, which were under high 



APTEE THE CONFLAGRATION 115 

pressure, notably the two cargo-boats and the Girard-line 
steamer Diamant, which had just arrived at Fort-de-France, 
could not evade it, and foundered or burned. The absence 
of any massing of bodies in the Rue Bouille and the Place 
Bertin, a street and square surrounded by extremely 
populous houses, and the appearance of the bodies in 
an uncarbonized condition, obviously prove that no panic 
preceded the destruction ; if it had been otherwise, the 
entire people would have hurried to the streets. Every- 
one died on the spot where he was overtaken by the cata- 
clysm. 

"The appearance of our boats off Carbet attracted to 
the shore about four hundred people, among them a score 
of wounded. I found on inquiry that not a single one of 
the people came from Saint Pierre ; all were from Carbet. 
The town was not set on fire, but seemed to have been de- 
vastated by water. The people all along the shore implored 
to be taken along. 

" M. Mauconduit gave me the following account of the 
phenomena as he had seen it. He was at home in the 
neighborhood of Carbet, overlooking Saint Pierre, when 
towards eight o'clock in the morning his attention was 
attracted by an immense sheaf of flames starting out of the 
volcano. He saw no cause for uneasiness, but suddenly 
noticed a spout of smoke advance, pour down upon Saint 
Pierre, and completely cover the city. A very violent south 
wind sprang up which dissipated the smoke, and at the same 
time flames burst forth on all sides. Everything took fire 
at the same moment : the roadstead, the city, and the sur- 



116 AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 

rounding country. All this could have lasted but a few 
moments ; there was no time to flee. 

" In this manner I explain the phenomena observed by 
me in the city itself, — the bodies of people appearing to 
have perished without suffering, the small number of corpses 
in the street (there are none except those of passers-by), 
and the destruction of the lighthouse of the Place Bertin, 
which had not during the time been touched by flame. 
The city must have been asphyxiated, the fiery spout having 
exhausted all the air that could be breathed. Perhaps there 
was also a mingling of explosive gas, for at Fort- de-France 
we heard loud detonations. I returned to the capital with 
the conviction, I may say with the assurance, that not a 
single resident of Saint Pierre could have saved himself. 

" I am of the opinion that all the inhabitants of the 
region lying between Sainte Philomene, Fonds-Core, Trois 
Ponts, Morne Abel, Morne d'Orange, and the Quartier 
Monsieur inclusive, have disappeared." 

The incidents connected with the escape of the negro 
prisoner from Saint Pierre form one of the most striking 
episodes in the destruction of that city, and furnish a per- 
sonal experience which is of interest in the light that it 
throws upon the problem of the catastrophe. So unique a 
record is perhaps not to be found in all the pages of history, 
and even from the lighter vein of romance it would be diffi- 
cult to extract anything that has more extraordinary rela- 
tions. 

From Thursday until Sunday Auguste Ciparis was 



AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 117 

lingering in the dungeon of the city jail, knowing nothing, 
beyond his own wounds, of the world's tempest that had 
rocked over him. He was burned to flesh and bone, but 
he knew not that others had been burned like him, and 
more. His cell was windowless, and all that could be seen 
of the outer world came by way of the grated aperture in 
the upper part of the door. No sound penetrated to his 
cell, not even the tread of the keeper's footsteps came to 
relieve the silence of this desolate abode. 

When I was at Morne Rouge on June 2, I knew that 
Ciparis was still confined there in a temporary lazaret which 
had been established by the faithful priest of that district, 
Pere Mary, but circumstances did not permit me to see him 
at the time, and, unfortunately, the opportunity for an 
interview never again presented itself. It was a good 
service to history, however, to have the statement of this 
negro taken by so accurate a recorder as Mr. George Ken- 
nan, who had preceded me by a number of days, and who 
has placed the facts which he gave to me personally in a 
published form (Outlook, July 26, 1902). At the time 
of Mr. Kennan's interview Ciparis was still showing the 
effects of the frightful burns which his back and legs had 
received, but was sufficiently composed to give a clear and 
dispassionate account of his sufferings and of the physical 
conditions that presented themselves to him. As he stated 
his own experience, he was waiting for the usual break- 
fast on the 8th, when it suddenly grew dark, and imme- 
diately afterwards hot air, laden with ash, entered his room 
through the door-grating. It came gently but fiercely. 



118 AFTEK THE CONFLAGRATION 

His flesh was instantly burned, and lie jumped about in 
agony, vainly calling for help. There was no help to come. 
The heat that scorched him was intense, but lasted for an 
instant only, and during that time he almost ceased to 
breathe. There was no accompanying smoke, no noise of 
any kind, and no odor to suggest a burning gas. The hot 
air and ash were the working demons that tore his flesh. 
Ciparis was clad at that time in hat, shirt and trousers, but 
his clothing did not take fire ; yet beneath his shirt, the 
back was terribly burned, and his body gave out the odor 
of burning flesh. It is difficult to conceive of a lasting 
agony greater than that which was suffered by this man. 
For three days and more he had been without food of any 
kind, and his only sustaining nourishment was the water 
of his cell. This appears to have been unaffected by the 
entering hot wave. During his long imprisonment he fre- 
quently shouted for help, but the cries of " Save me !" were 
answered only by the groans of anguish that followed. It 
continued this way until the following Sunday, when it 
chanced that searching parties neared his place of im- 
prisonment. He heard voices, and renewed his cries for 
help. The voices were those of two negroes, who, when 
they satisfied themselves that the sound that came to them 
was from a human being, immediately began the task of 
rescue. The refuge was broken open, and in a short time 
the half-dead prisoner was brought to free air. 

The history of the "prisoner of Saint Pierre," while 
most interesting in its details, is to an extent shorn of its 
romance by the later discovery of at least one other sur- 



AFTEE THE CONFLAGRATION 119 

vivor, Leon Compere-Leandre, also a negro, whose experi- 
ence, as given to a representative of the Temps, is published 
in the Bulletin of the Societe Astronomique de France (Au- 
gust, 1902, p. 352). Leandre, who was a shoemaker by 
trade, is described as being about twenty-eight years of 
age, strongly built, and with a robust and vigorous aspect. 
"On the 8th of May," he says, "about eight o'clock of 
the morning, I was seated on the door-step of my house, 
which was in the southeastern part of the city, and on the 
Trace road (the road from Saint Pierre to Fort-de-France 
which abuts, almost in the centre of the city, upon the 
street Petit-Versailles). All of a sudden I felt a terrible 
wind blowing, the earth began to tremble, and the sky sud- 
denly became dark. I turned to go into the house, made 
with great difficulty the three or four steps that separated 
me from my room, and felt my arms and legs burning, also 
my body. I dropped upon a table. At this moment four 
others sought refuge in my room, crying and writhing with 
pain, although their garments showed no sign of having 
been touched by flame. At the end of ten minutes, one of 
these, the young Delavaud girl, aged about ten years, fell 
dead ; the others left. I then got up and went into another 
room, where I found the father Delavaud, still clothed and 
lying on the bed, dead. He was purple and inflated, but 
the clothing was intact. I went out, and found in the court 
two corpses interlocked : they were the bodies of the two 
young men who had before been with me in the room. 
Reentering the house, I came upon two other bodies, of two 
men who had been in the garden when I returned to my 



120 AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION 

house at the beginning of the catastrophe. Crazed and 
almost overcome, I threw myself upon a bed, inert and 
awaiting death. My senses returned to me in perhaps an 
hour, when I beheld the roof burning. With sufficient 
strength left, my legs bleeding and covered with burns, 
I ran to Fonds-Saint-Denis, six kilometres from Saint 
Pierre. With the exception of the persons of whom I 
have spoken, I heard no human cries ; I experienced no 
degree of suffocation, and it was only air that was lacking 
to me. But it was burning. There were neither ashes nor 
mud. The entire city was aflame." 

These single escapes from Saint Pierre only put into 
more prominent relief the extraordinary nature of the 
death-dealing blow, whose harvest was relentlessly com- 
plete, and permitted practically no one to escape its path. 
The condition is, indeed, almost inconceivable, for the 
marvel is not that there should have been two isolated cases 
of seemingly miraculous preservation, but that there were 
not many more of the same kind. A scorch-blast that 
clears all human life before it, and leaves in places un- 
touched objects that are normally thought to be most 
destructible, has many things for its characteristics which 
science has still to learn. 



VIII 
VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PARALLEL 

Whatever position may be assigned to the eruption of 
Mont Pelee and the destruction of Saint Pierre in the cate- 
gory of volcanic catastrophism, it is certain that in the 
popular mind the phenomena of May 8 will most gener- 
ally be associated with those of seemingly similar nature 
which caused the overshadowing of Pompeii and Hercu- 
laneum. Nor, indeed, can the scientific mind well turn 
from this comparison, however differently the facts in the 
two cases may present themselves. The annihilation of 
two cities of almost exactly the same population, of nearly 
equivalent position in relation to their destroyer, and the 
suddenness of the paroxysm which forced the destruction 
of life and property, instinctively suggest this parallel, if 
nothing more. The two events, for the moment at least, 
stand apart in the history of the world. 

The historic records of the past are, unfortunately, of 
such a nature as to compel the acceptance of a generous 
supply of uncertainty in their consideration, and the 
weighing of evidence the truth of which in some instances 
cannot be established. The exact information that we pos- 
sess relating to the destruction of the Roman cities is so 
meagre that one is almost tempted to say that it does not 
exist at all. In the writings of the younger Pliny alone 
have we a contemporary statement describing the Vesuvian 

121 



122 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

eruption of the year 79, but in his famous letters to Tacitus 
this observer makes no mention, by name at least, of either 
Pompeii or Herculaneum. This extraordinary lapse has, 
indeed, given reason for the belief that Pompeii and Her- 
culaneum were not destroyed at this time, nor even neces- 
sarily at the same time, as had been forcibly argued by 
Lippi, in his work, "Fu il Fuoco o I/'Acqua che soterro Pom- 
pei eel ErcolanoV (Naples, 1816) ; for it has been thought 
inconceivable that an observer so careful in recording facts 
as was Pliny should have failed to note the principal inci- 
dent in the events that he was describing. His position at 
Misenum was such as to command under ordinary conditions 
the sites of both the Roman cities ; and he could not have 
failed to obtain information of so important a fact as a 
destruction from runners, or from the very persons who 
brought to him the details of his uncle's death. On the 
other hand, Pliny's object in writing his letters to Tacitus 
being mainly to give an account of his uncle's experiences, 
it may not have been thought necessary at that late day, 11 
the writing following the event by many years, to refer to 
a general calamity whose nature must have been known 
to everybody. Much of the narrative bears evidence of 
having been compiled from memory, and a memory that 
was perhaps in a measure faulty. The statement, for ex- 
ample, that the eruption of Vesuvius took place on the 
" ninth of the calends of SejDtember" (corresponding to the 
24th of August of our calendar) has been corrected by 
some commentators to read the calends of December, and 
for the reason, as claimed, that certain fruits found pre- 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 123 

served among the ruins of Herculaneum were of a kind 
that in the region of Campania do not appear before the 
month of October. This discrepancy was already noted by 
Professor Gaetano D'Ancora as early as 1803, in his work, 
" Storio-Fisico degli Scavi di JErcolano e di Pompei ;" but 
this one fact could with equal force be used as an argu- 
ment to sustain the view that Herculaneum was not de- 
stroyed at the time of the great Yesuvian eruption. 

If Pliny makes no direct mention of the fall of Pom- 
peii and Herculaneum, yet very nearly the first sentence in 
his Epistola XVI might perhaps be construed as noting 
that catastrophe : Quamvis enim pulcherrimarum clade ter- 
rarum, ut populi, ut urbes, memorabili casu quasi semper 
victurus oceiderit. Such an interpretation, if sought for, 
can, indeed, easily be found in the works of several of 
Pliny's translators. Earl Orrery and Melmoth both trans- 
late the passage above quoted in such a way as to make it 
presumable that Pliny makes a direct reference to the main 
fact of the catastrophe, although not stating it in word. 
Earl Orrery's translation appears: "For although his fall 
was attended by the destruction of most beautiful terri- 
tories, seeming, as it were, destined to be remembered 
equally with those nations and cities who perish by some 
memorable event." * 

Were the information that Pliny conveys all that we 

* A better rendering would perhaps be : " For although he per- 
ished in the destruction of these fairest of lands, yet he was destined 
to survive forever just as cities and peoples visited by some great 
catastrophe." 



124 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

possessed regarding the Vesuvian eruption of 79, one would 
be, indeed, well justified, even with the favor of the pas- 
sage above quoted, in doubting that the overwhelming of 
Pompeii and Herculaneum were part of the same event. 
But the historic narration of Dion Cassius, even with its 
fanciful details, can hardly be considered otherwise than 
as supplying the deficiency which is left to us by Pliny, for 
it could not well have been constructed without a knowledge 
of facts then existing, even though many generations had 
passed since Pliny's writing. This view is made the more 
probable, seeing that no great eruption of Vesuvius is noted 
in the interval between the year 79 and the appearance of 
Dion Cassius's history ; nor do historians make reference to 
any important destruction of towns or villages during this 
interval. 

Dion Cassius, and after him nearly all historians, refer 
the destruction of life and property in Pompeii to an over- 
whelming fall of ashes and cinders, and the accompaniment 
of asphyxiating gases. The city itself is largely in ruins, 
and this condition gives emphasis to Pliny's statement that 
violent earthquakes were a part of the phenomena to which 
he was witness. But we are not informed what amount of 
damage was wrought by these earth-tremors ; nor do we 
positively know how far the ruin that had been inflicted 
by the earlier earthquake of 63 had at that time been re- 
paired, although it would seem from the studies of Over- 
beck and others that most of the better houses and public 
edifices had been fully restored. 

The condition of the ruins at Pompeii does not entirely 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 125 

forbid a comparison with those of Saint Pierre. There is 
much that is suggestively common to both places — much 
that is different. The form of destruction that is repre- 
sented in Saint Pierre is much more violent, cataclysmic, 
than in Pompeii, but the character of the ruins in the latter 
city does not entirely remove the suspicion that some other 
agent besides simple ashes and possible earthquakes may 
have been at work in their formation. Had the" data that we 
now possess been available to the earlier writers on Pompeii, 
it is not unreasonable to suppose that a somewhat different 
interpretation might have been given to the destruction 
than the one that has come down to us from the days of 
Dion Cassius ; for the particular kind of destructivity which 
characterized the eruption of Mont Pelee had not been 
recognized before, and consequently could not have been 
used as an alternative in analysis to the evidence which was 
carried by the covering of ashes and lapilli. The crum- 
bled condition of the city, for example, where not identified 
with the seismic movement of 63, has invariably been ac- 
cepted as proof of new earthquake disturbances, but the 
dislocation of the whole of Saint Pierre, without earth- 
quake movements of any kind, makes necessarily doubtful 
this interpretation of a portion of Pompeii's history. 

The statement that the lives lost in Pompeii, which may 
have been from eight hundred to fifteen hundred, was the 
result of a sudden or steady overwhelming by hot ash cer- 
tainly appears plausible on its face, and it gains strength 
through the further statement that the elder Pliny, in his 
effort to render assistance to the inhabitants of the threat- 



126 YESUYIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

ened region near the foot of Vesuvius, was unable to effect 
a landing with the vessel or vessels of his fleet ; hence the 
journey over to Stabise, on the opposite side of the bay, 
where lived Pliny's friend, Pomponianus, and where the 
Roman fleet-commander succumbed. But that which con- 
flicts with this assumption is the fact that most of the in- 
habitants of Pompeii had in truth left the city prior to its 
destruction or overwhelming — a condition that is indis- 
putably proved by the small number of bodies or skele- 
tons that have been found in the ruins, and which stands in 
opposition to the fanciful statement of Dion Cassius that 
the inhabitants were destroyed while witnessing a perform- 
ance in the theatre (theatres). Nor is this fact wholly in 
harmony with the statement of the younger Pliny that a mes- 
sage of danger had been received from Rectina, 12 asking for 
delivery, because all avenues of escape, except that of the 
water, had been cut off from her location. 

A further disturbing fact in this analysis is the circum- 
stance that many of the bodies unearthed in the course of 
modern excavation were found in attitudes of action or 
motion, of full composure, and of seeming indifference to 
impending danger. The reconstruction, however fanciful 
it may be, of the baker standing over his oven, with the 
baked bread alongside of him ; of the slave disputing with 
his master, the latter holding the bunch of keys in his 
hands, of the sleeping dog, etc., is a familiar theme and 
chapter in the history of Pompeii ; but it is also the em- 
phatic counterpart of the history of Saint Pierre, and the 
two can be justly thought to read the same episode in 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 127 

nature. It is not reasonable to assume that these poor in- 
habitants of a city, which was already deserted by the 
greater portion of its population, could have died a death 
resulting from progressive incineration. Why have re- 
mained, it can properly be asked, in the face of such accu- 
mulating danger ? Why not have followed the balance of 
the population elsewhere ? One can more readily believe 
that those destroyed in Pompeii were slaves, hirelings, and 
others, who had returned from some point of safety to re- 
move or recover needed household-goods and articles of 
luxury, and that during this visit, not thought at the time 
to be particularly dangerous, they were suddenly anni- 
hilated. Evidence favoring this assumption can easily be 
found in the circumstance that many of the bodies, when 
recovered, were found lying in the ash high above the 
ground-surface. This was the condition in one of the most 
interesting of the Fiorelli finds — the four bodies recovered 
in the Via del Balcone Pensili. 

The covering of ashes and lapilli that overlies Pompeii 
has a general thickness of fifteen to twenty feet, the greater 
part of which is more commonly assumed — although dis- 
puted by many — to be the resultant of the single eruption 
of Vesuvius in 79. The lowest stratum of eight feet 
seems to be composed almost entirely of loose lapilli or 
pumice, having a generally uniform appearance and com- 
position. Those who hold to the view that Pompeii's de- 
struction was one of simple incineration (or of incineration 
helped by seismic disturbances) point to this covering of ash 
and cinders, which is indeed very heavy, but there is hardly 



128 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

a way at this time of ascertaining what proportion of this 
impounding material is representative of a single volcanic 
eruption, or of a series of eruptions which may have fol- 
lowed one another in fairly rapid succession. The absence 
or presence of stratification is not an unfailing test in this 
matter, as the loose fragmental material of volcanic dis- 
charges is rapidly readjusted, especially where its position 
is almost directly under the cloud of torrential rains. A 
"stratifying" ash in such position might readily be eaten 
out where the lapilli or pumice would remain intact. Such 
is certainly the condition which one finds to-day at Saint 
Pierre, after a considerable number of ash-falls and heavy 
rains. 

Geologists who have studied the Pompeian field have 
lent themselves facilely to the theory of an overwhelming 
sheet of ash and cinders largely on the ocular evidence that 
is presented to them by the covering matrix and by the 
general form of Vesuvius itself. It has come to be a recog- 
nized belief with these investigators that the modern form 
of Vesuvius, as distinguished from Monte Somma, dates 
from the eruption of 79, which blew off the head of the 
ancient volcano, or true Vesuvius, and gave us the double 
mountain which so picturesquely dominates the landscape 
of the Neapolitan Gulf. Had a cataclysm of this nature, 
comparable in magnitude with the cataclysms of Papanda- 
yang in 1772, of Krakatao in 1883, and of Bandai-San in 
1888, actually taken place, it would assuredly have fur- 
nished material sufficient to bury most of the cities of Cam- 
pania situated on the side of the overthrow ; but it could, 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 129 

at the same time, not have escaped the attention of the 
younger Pliny, nor have been eliminated from his graphic 
observations on the volcano's activity. The spectacle would 
have been too momentous, too terrifying in its various 
aspects, not to have produced a profound, an indelible im- 
pression upon the mind of the young investigator. And it 
would have been impossible in the face of such a destruc- 
tion to quietly pen the lines : Nee defuerunt quijictis menti- 
tisque terroribus vera pericula augerent (" there were those 
who magnified the real dangers by imaginary and false 
terrors." — Orrery). 13 

In truth, about the only reason that geologists have for 
assuming this decapitation of Vesuvius in the year 79, 
the theory of which has been so carefully elaborated by Sir 
William Hamilton, Breislak (" Voyages dans la Campanie" 
1801), Johnston-Lavis and others, is the statement of 
Strabo that in his time the summit of the mountain " was 
for the most part level, and wholly barren, covered with 
ashes, etc.," supported by the further fact that the ancient 
writers generally, speaking of Vesuvius, make mention of 
a single summit only. This ignores, and perhaps justly, 
whatever weight may have been carried by the earlier 
accounts describing Spartacus's refuge in the crater of the 
volcano. It must be admitted, however, that this form of 
evidence is very slender, and wholly insufficient to establish 
so important a premise. Mountain forms are, of all the 
objects in nature, the most difficult to describe, and probably 
with most persons the more imposing point of view will 
constitute the basis or nucleus of a full description. Vesu- 



130 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

vius as it exists to-day, or as it was a few years ago when 
the summit was once more in the condition of a flat plain 
without crateral hollow, is so prominent an object beside 
Monte Somma that it could readily be taken to be the pict- 
ure ; and it may be questioned if the greater number of 
persons visiting Naples to-day are aware of the presence of 
two mountains. Indeed, Delia Torre himself, in his "His- 
toire et Phenomenes du Vesuve" (1760), after exhausting all 
the evidence in favor of the position afterwards assumed by 
Hamilton, justly asks : " After all, who can state that the 
ancients in describing Vesuvius with a single summit did 
not refer their descriptions to positions whence the moun- 
tain really appeared single, as it does to-day from many 
points ; and that there were not other positions, just as to- 
day, whence the mountain appeared with two summits."* 

This argument is certainly unanswerable, and goes to 
the pith of the inquiry. While it does not permit us to 
summarily dismiss the text-book illustrations of the recon- 
structed Vesuvius of the time of Titus, it is sufficient to 
make their value exceedingly dubious and to make more 
than questionable the accepted teaching of geology. 

The discovery among the Pompeian frescoes of a num- 
ber of pictorial representations of a mountain-form almost 
certainly that of Vesuvius, has thrown some additional 

* " Qui pourrait dire, d'ailleurs, si les Anciens, en decrivant le 
Vesuve avec un seul sommet, ne Font pas observe des endroits d'oit il nous 
parait encore tel aujourd 'hui, qui sont en assez grand nombre ; et s'il riy 
avait pas alors d'autres lieux, comme il y en a encore a present, d' oil il 
parut en avoir deux." 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAKALLEL 



131 



light upon this subject, and should, it seems to me, be con- 
clusive in the proof that the pictures offer. But the con- 
clusions, which, with a general discussion of the subject, 
are set forth at length by Enrico Cocchia in his paper, "La 
Forma nelle Pitture e Descrizioni Antiche," published in the 
"Atti delta Reale Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere, e Belle 




RUE LUCIE— SAINT PIERRE 



Arti" of Naples (XXI., 1900-1901), differ, and supply 
argumentative conditions which the facts themselves do not 
warrant. The three copies which are furnished by Cocchia 
show plainly, however otherwise deficient, a rounded or an 
acutely conical mountain, which, if applied in evidence, 
immediately disposes of Strabo's contention that the summit 



132 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

was a flat plain — unless, indeed, by this term the Greek 
geographer meant to convey a plain of any size, such as 
Vesuvius had a few years ago when the crateral hollow was 
first filled in. There is not in any of them the remotest 
suggestion of the truncated colossus which appears in most 
of the geological restorations, and is made to accommodate 
the Strabonic plain. The picture in the Latrario Pom- 
peiano, where Vesuvius is placed under the protection of 
Bacchus, does, indeed, confirm Strabo's description of the 
vine-clad slopes of the volcano, but in this picture the 
mountain is acutely conical, and conforms almost absolutely 
in contour with the picture in the Delia Torre collection 
depicting Monte Somma immediately previous to the great 
eruption of 1631. Surely it is not to be conceived that a 
cataclysm, such as is argued for the year 79, could have 
left the major part of the mountain with its old outline 
corresponding with that which appears nearly sixteen hun- 
dred years later. One can, I think, safely accept the con- 
clusions of Beloch and Nissen that the evidence that we 
now possess is entirely insufficient to support the theory of 
the Vesuvian decapitation ; or farther, that evidence of this 
character does not exist.* 

* Geologists have gone still farther, and point to the immense 
amount of debris that lies beyond (southward of) Pompeii, and which 
has presumably converted the Eoman city from a port to an inland 
town, as evidence of this terrible destruction ; but the close investiga- 
tions of Eosini and Euggiero show unmistakably that the extension" 
of the land outward into the bay, and the consequent lengthening of 
the course of the Sarno (the ancient Sarnus), are the result of accre- 






VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 



133 



Dismissing these various negative points, which are 
more forcible, perhaps, in rendering doubtful the accepted 
version of the fall and destruction of that city than as 
establishing a positive correlation with the facts of Saint 
Pierre, it remains to be seen what there is to be found in 




BURIAL-VAULT— SAINT PIERRE 



the writings of Pliny to suggest a correspondence between 
the phenomena of Vesuvius, which he so carefully observed, 



tional growth extending through centuries, and independent of vol- 
canic catastrophism. This view is accepted by Overbeck in his 
"Pompeii, in seinen Gebduden, Alterthumern, und Kunstwerken" 1884, 
in collaboration with Mau. 



134 VESUYIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

and those of Mont Pelee. It will be recalled that the 
main feature in the eruption of Pelee was the great black 
cloud, luminous in part with incandescent particles or with 
burning flame, which shot out from the crater, rolled down 
the mountain-side with dazzling velocity, and fell upon the 
doomed city, destroying it and the life that it contained 
almost instantly. In his Epistola XX Pliny writes : " Ab 
alter o latere nubes atra et horrenda ignei spiritus tortis 
vibratisque discursibus rupta in longas flammarum figuras 
dehiscebat : fulguribus Ulai et similes et majores erant." 
Whatever latitude may be given to a true interpretation of 
this sentence, it is remarkable that the two translations of 
Pliny's works which are generally accepted for their 
strength, those of Melmoth and Earl Orrery, give to the 
passage a rendering which, were it accepted literally, would 
establish so close a correspondence between the phenomena 
of 79 and those of 1902 as to make it difficult to resist the 
conclusion that they were fundamentally alike. Melmoth's 
translation of the passage appears as follows : " On the other 
side, a black and terrible cloud, bursting with an igneous 
serpentine vapor, darted out a long train of fire, resembling, 
but much larger than, the flashes of lightning." And Or- 
rery's : " On the land-side a dark and horrible cloud, 
charged with combustible matter, suddenly broke and shot 
forth a long trail of fire, in the nature of lightning, but in 
larger flashes." Either description in its application to the 
destroying cloud of Pelee might be taken to replace the 
descriptions of the officers of the Pouyer-Quertier, Captain 
Freeman, M. Arnoux, or Pere Mary, while it in no way 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 135 

interprets the phenomena of the ordinary ash-clouci that 
belonged either to Pelee or to Vesuvius. This black cloud, 
with its " trail of fire," differing from lightning, might 
reasonably be taken to be the correspondent of the " wall 
of fire" to which the unfortunate sea-captains in the road- 
stead of Saint Pierre refer in their narratives. 

Pliny clearly wishes to distinguish between this terri- 
fying cloud and the ordinary ash-cloud of the volcano, for 
he adds : "Nee multo post ilia nubes descendere in terras, 
operire maria" (" not long afterwards, the cloud descended, 
and enshrouded the sea") ; and still later : " respicio 
densa caligo terges imminebat, qum nos torrentis modo in- 
fusa terras, sequebatur," which appears in Earl Orrery's 
translation as : " I looked back. A thick dark vapor just 
behind us rolled along the ground like a torrent, and fol- 
lowed us." To make it certain that this was not the ordi- 
nary ash-cloud, the further fact is stated that : " the ashes 
now began falling, although in no considerable quantity" 
("jam cinis adhuc tamen rams"). It would be difficult 
to construct a description more thoroughly according with 
that given by the commandant of the Pouyer-Quertier for 
the descending, rolling cloud of June 6, which is repre- 
sented to have been the exact counterpart of the one of May 
8; or one more thoroughly inapplicable to the ordinary 
phenomena of eruptions. 

It is to be noted as a singular fact that in this first re- 
ported eruption of Vesuvius there was no emission of lava 
— a condition very different from what appears in the later 
cataclysms of that volcano. On the other hand, it is not 



136 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

unlikely that there may have been extensive mud-flows, and 
that one of these overwhelmed Herculaneum, just as the 
great mud-flow of May 5 from Pelee overwhelmed the Usine 
Guerin. Many of the earlier observers, and notably Lippi, 
of the Herculanean Academy of Naples, have argued for 
this form of destruction of the city, and assuredly their 
view is more plausible than that which assumes the ordinary 
fall of cinders and ashes united with the volcanic waters or 
rains into puzzuolana. The discrepancy between the condi- 
tion that exists here and that at Pompeii is too great to per- 
mit of the acceptance of this explanation. 14 

Students of Pompeian history have always been puzzled 
to account for the condition of undress to which the casts 
of so many of the bodies entombed in the ruins give evi- 
dence, and the speculative, if not wholly ingenious, view 
has been set forth (accepted by Fiorelli, Overbeck and 
others) that the affrighted inhabitants of the doomed city 
sought to facilitate their movements in flight by casting off 
their clothing. Some of the casts show the bodies to have 
been absolutely naked at the time when the mould or impres- 
sion in the encircling matrix was taken. Can it for a mo- 
ment be assumed that under a rain of hot or heated cinders 
or of a fall of cinders of any kind, a fleeing community 
would divest itself of a last garment, expose the naked flesh 
to fiery missiles or to the direct blows of rapidly-falling frag- 
ments of rock ? Those who have experienced the force of 
impact of these erupted fragments will appreciate the ex- 
treme improbability of any such condition. A far more 
plausible explanation of the situation is to be found in the 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 



137 



history of Saint Pierre. Many of the bodies recovered from 
its ruins were also in a state of complete nudity, having 
been divested of their clothing by the force of the tornadic 
blast, in a manner precisely similar to that which so re- 
peatedly happens in the course of the cyclones or tornadoes 
of the Western United States, 



■A 




BODIES ON THE TERRACE ROAD 



There are a number of other resembling facts that asso- 
ciate the bodies found at Pompeii with those at Saint Pierre, 
and one has but to glance at the illustrations of positions to 
be struck by their remarkable identity. We find the same 
attitudes in posture, the identical ones in death. Groups 
of bodies have been found in Pompeii (as in the House of 



138 VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 

Diomed) as well as in Saint Pierre, but in the former city 
they have been mostly unearthed from cellars or basements, 
and it has been assumed that the refuge from the descend- 
ing shower of lapilli and ashes was sought in these subter- 
ranean shelters, where death from starvation, asphyxiation 
and enclosure finally overcame the unfortunates. One may 
well pause before committing one's self to this theory, for it 
hardly appears probable that people, seeing the enveloping 
nature of the falling material from the volcano, would de- 
liberately seal themselves up in such a way as to forcibly 
close off retreat. It is far more natural to assume that only 
a momentary shelter, suggested at the time of the unrolling 
of the great black cloud which is described by Pliny, was 
sought for by the paralyzed multitude — the history that is 
developed in the ruins of Saint Pierre, where groups of 
bodies have been found in basements and elsewhere, hud- 
dled together, seeking protection from the approaching 
dragon of death. 

Overbeck, Mau and others refer to the deformed ves- 
sels of pottery and glass-ware that were found in some 
of the desolated habitations, and, adhering to the theory 
that there was no extensive conflagration in Pompeii, con- 
clude that this deformation was the result of a chemical 
and physical process continuing through long time, ages, a 
change that has also affected the coloring of many of the 
larger Pompeian frescoes. It should be noted that pre- 
cisely the same deformation is a characteristic of the wares 
removed from Saint Pierre, and was brought about in the 
period of a few hours or less, in the midst of a great con- 



VESUVIUS AND POMPEII: A PAEALLEL 139 

flagration, which destroyed color here and left it untouched 
elsewhere. 

The foregoing analysis of the facts appertaining to the 
Pornpeian catastrophe is practically all that is permitted to 
us in our present state of knowledge. It allows clearly of 
the assumption, even if it does not supply an adequate 
demonstration of the fact, that the city and its inhabitants 
were destroyed somewhat in the manner of Saint Pierre, by 
an explosive or tornadic blast, and not through simple in- 
cineration, as has been generally assumed by historians and 
geologists. The evidence supporting this conclusion is 
found in the Plinian narrative, in the ruin characteristics 
of the two cities, and in the wholly accordant condition in 
which so many of the bodies were found. There are no 
facts known to us at this time that can properly be said to 
invalidate this general conclusion ; and it can truly be said, 
that were a historian or geologist to wander through the 
ruins of Saint Pierre, and note his facts in the absence of a 
knowledge of what really took place, he would almost cer- 
tainly come to the conclusion that the ruin, death and 
desolation which there prevail were brought about by 
causes identical with those which wrecked the Roman city. 



IX 
ACROSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIER 

It required no more than a glance to convince me 
that to properly understand the geography of the Pelee 
eruption an ascent of the mountain would be necessary. Its 
past relief was too imperfectly known to permit of a tabu- 
lation of its active points on old charts, and even the major 
parts of the surface were distinguishable only with diffi- 
culty, not wholly relieved of doubt. Some little effort to 
come in closer contact with the volcano had been made 
before my arrival in Fort-de-France, but the continuance 
of eruptive blasts, and the descending smoke and showers 
of ashes that swept the side of Saint Pierre, rendered the 
attempts to approach abortive, and committed the investiga- 
tor to a distant study of his subject. I felt that the eastern 
or opposing face of the mountain, where the favor of the 
steadily blowing trade- wind would be obtained, held out a 
better prospect for success, and accordingly laid my plans to 
cross the island. 

It was my good fortune at this time to meet M. Fernand 
Clerc, one of the wealthiest cane-growers in Martinique, 
whose independent thought and action had saved him from 
the catastrophe of the 8th, and whose principal sugar estate 
at Vive seemed to me most favorably situated for the studies 
that I had planned. Having himself, as a first pioneer 
after the eruption, made a partial examination of the vol- 

140 




Expl. Heilprin 



A MARTINIQUE PASTORAL— ASSIER 



ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIER 141 

cano, he naturally felt a more than kindly interest in my 
work, and with rare hospitality placed at my disposition all 
the comforts that his estate offered, and even generously 
undertook to send me out. On the following morning, May 
29, a mud-bespattered wagonette, not unlike an abbreviated 
Vienna fiacre, was in waiting for us — Mr. Leadbeater 
accompanying me — and with it came a number of letters 
commending us to various servants along the road, and in- 
structing for a through journey. Our route lay across some 
of the most interesting sections of the island, singularly 
beautiful in their vistas and verdant in the glories of a not 
too oppressively tropical vegetation. The volcanic ash had 
fallen here and there in small quantity, only sufficiently to 
give a gray touch to patches of soil, but not to the extent 
of seriously injuring the fields of brilliant cane. After 
leaving the heights above the Bay of Fort-de- France, the 
road descends to Lamentin, whence it again ascends to gain 
the high point of Gros Morne, surveying the Bays of 
Robert, Galion and Trinite, and from Trinite closely skirts 
the shore-line to the end. The detour circumscribes nearly 
a third of the entire island, and gives charming vistas of 
cultivated field and forest, of mountain peak and plain, and 
of a ragged seashore, with outlyiug peninsulas, reefs and 
islands. It covers about thirty-five miles. The road leaves 
Fort-de-France by the native village, with its shaded cot- 
tages and beautifully flowered patches of garden, and 
almost immediately enters the open, where scattered groups 
of habitations take the place of the village sites. These are 
everywhere planted with the usual selection of tropical trees 



142 ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 

and shrubs, many of them serving in the economy of the 
household, others grown for ornament only. The natives 
are passionately fond of showy flowers, and there exists 
hardly a house-site that is not decorated with the magnifi- 
cent scarlet hibiscus, or has not its bunches of Bougainvillea 
and jessamine. 

After an hour and a half we arrived at Lamentin, a 
commune of nearly eleven thousand inhabitants, and now, 
after Fort-de-France, the most populous location in the 
island. It is for Martinique a place of considerable com- 
mercial importance, being the outlet of perhaps the richest 
cane region of the colony, and having the advantages of 
direct steamboat communication with Fort-de-France. Like 
many of its prototypes in France, it is a city essentially of 
one street, with the main road entering at one end and 
leaving at the other. This being market-day, with market 
held in the open as well as in the hall set aside for its pur- 
poses, the traversing thoroughfare was thronged, and it was 
with difficulty that we could force a way through. Our 
mission had already been made known to the people, and 
naturally they hung close to us, trying to draw from our 
superior experience (!) such comforting assurances as might 
help to allay even a modicum of their anxiety. Of course 
the volcan was on everybody's lips ; its possibilities and 
limitations were accepted and debated at all corners, and 
there were few among the inquiring multitude who did not 
seem to feel that we could in some way stand between the 
catastrophe and the mountain. With the city's people were 
a number of refugees who had come in from the region of 



^ 



ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 



143 



devastation and were no longer willing to trust themselves 
to Pelee's capers. Affrighted, they still carried on their 
heads what little belonged to them — frequently nothing 
more than could be packed into a small panier, at other 
times with a hen or rooster added, and the usual covering 
bonnet. They had walked twenty and thirty miles, and 




Photo. Heilprin 



REFUGEES ON THE ROAD— GRANDE-ANSE 



were still searching for an abiding-place where their sleep 
would not be interrupted by Pelee's rumbling. 

During our short halt here, we were pleasantly enter- 
tained in the house of one of the leading French families, 
whose members plied us thickly with questions bearing 
upon Mont Pelee. Like everyone else in the region, 



144 ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 

they were deeply interested in the different problems that 
the volcano had brought out, and this interest was a near 
one, for even at this distance the ash had covered, even 
if lightly, much of their estates, and the flying cinders 
warned of a greater destruction. I explained in some detail 
the nature of our mission, and offered the assurance that an 
opened volcano was ordinarily not as dangerous as one that 
was closed ; but I am certain that the good people, despite 
their polite assurance that my explanation was quite accept- 
able, continued to believe that an active volcano was about 
as bad as it well could be. The geological conception was 
to them not nearly so impressive as the picture of ashes and 
cinders. 

Beyond Lamentin the road continues pretty well mount- 
ing, until it gains the summit-crest, whence a most striking 
view is obtained of the Bay of Trinite and of the peninsula 
of Caravelle stretching far out to sea, with islands and islets 
dotting the water south of it. The truncated summit of 
Vauclin was easily distinguishable in the south, and in the 
extreme west the eye fell upon the bold knobs of the Pitons 
de Carbet ; there was nothing visible of Pelee or of its great 
ash-cloud. Many of the stream-beds that we crossed were 
blocked with boulders of basalt or diorite, evidently ob 
tained from ancient lava-flows or from dikes which unite 
the different volcanic masses to one another. Outcrops of 
this rock are numerous in the hillsides, and a number of 
them furnish the repair material for road-paving. All 
through Martinique the work of the department of Ponts- 
et- Chaussees is kept well in evidence, not alone in the cutting 



I 






1 

- 



ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 145 

and surface repair of roads, but in the regulation of the 
running waters, and the construction over them of massive 
bridges of iron and masonry. The beautiful forest and 
mountain road between Morne Rouge and Ajoupa-Bouillon, 
which was partially destroyed in the eruption of August 30, 
exhibits the engineering qualities of that department to 
great advantage and pleasantly reflects the service that the 
government pays to the country. 

We arrived at Trinite, where we changed animals 
for the second time, shortly before two o'clock. Trinite, 
which counts about eight thousand inhabitants, is the most 
available port situated on the eastern side of the island. 
It has an excellent and well-protected harbor (whose ad- 
vantages, however, are to an extent lost in its windward 
situation), and is served by both sail-craft and steamers 
of large draught. The town has its pretty shaded place, 
from which leads off the great long street with its rows 
of low and closely-built houses, some plastered, stuccoed 
and tinted yellow, pink and blue — others, and the greater 
number, of wood. As at Lamentin, everybody was in the 
streets. Our septuagenarian hostess, a person of color 
but of exquisite manner, who helped us to the comforts 
of her little inn, explained the bustle of the streets and 
the events that had been transpiring. The difficulty of 
understanding the French-Creole patois made this explana- 
tion very welcome, although it was evident that the excite- 
ment was all about the mauvaise montagne. We were 
again nearing the gray ogre, and the closer we came up 

with it the more absolutely did its doings engross the minds 

10 



146 ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 

of the people. It was Mont Pelee in everything. Every 
thunder detonation, every flash of lightning, was unques- 
tionably a part of Pelee — the torrents and high seas were a 
part of the same destructive monster. 

Beyond Trinite the road follows closely the line of the 
coast, leaving it here and there only for short distances to 
climb over the buttressed prominences that project into the 
sea. It is a charming piece of roadway, commanding ex- 
quisite retrospects over land and water, and with now and 
then a distant view of the lofty mountain summits. For 
long distances it is bordered by continuous lines of rubber- 
trees and elsewhere by fields of luxuriant cane. Much of 
the vegetation of the coast lies hard-pressed against the 
rocks, blown to them by the almost continuous east winds 
which come in from the sea, and appears in recumbent 
masses, at first suggesting a covering of moss and creeping 
plants. At many points along the sea the old deposits of 
Mont Pelee, masses of agglomerate and tuff, and of rusted 
fields of decomposing lava, show up in bold cliffs and road- 
banks, much of it appearing in the form of the orbicular 
disintegration that is so distinctive of certain eruptive 
rocks. 

We passed through the towns of Sainte Marie and 
Marigot at a wild gallop, compelling a roadway among the 
crowds that had assembled. From this point onward, to 
Grande-Anse and to Assier, the roadway was thick with 
refugees, who came of all ages and sizes, each carrying 
something that belonged to the household. They had left 
their little huts and habitations, their smiling gardens, and 



ACROSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 147 

cultivated patches of cassava, " cabbage," and banana to 
seek shelter with friends, or where a new nature would 
again help them to a living. No one, or but few, had 
lost anything so far, but it was feared that a day of reckon- 
ing would come to the eastern side of the mountain as it 
had already come to the western. The gardens and house- 
tops had been grayed with ash, they had noted the forest 
break under the load of mud that had been flung upon it, 
and they had seen the sugar-cane flattened out over acres 
as if it had been swept by a tornado. The poor people 
had also seen their gentle streams racing in tumultuous 
torrents, sweeping out their banks, and hurling great 
boulders against hamlets and villages. It was time for 
them to leave, they thought. From near and far, they 
came. Habitations were deserted and the work in the 
fields was stopped. The magnificent growths of cane were 
left to do their own work with nature — to grow, ripen and 
decay. There was none to cut the stalk for the large mills 
nearby, and the gladdening smoke no longer issued from 
the tall chimneys of the usines to mark the hours of labor. 
Thousands of the peasantry had left their homes and many 
of the settlements showed hardly more than closed doors. 
The few who could better afford the luxury were riding in 
mule-carts and ox-carts, some few on horseback, but the 
greater number, young and old, were trudging along on 
foot in the manner of the ancient patriarchs. 

We arrived at the estate of Assier, to which the hospi- 
tality of M. Clerc had commended us, just as the sun was 
casting its last rays upon the tall cloud that Pelee was 



148 



ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 



throwing into space. The day had worn itself away so 
that little was to be seen of the distant landscape beyond 
gray color and mass. Ragged banana-leaves and drooping 
cocoanut-crowns were silhouetted against the western sky, 
but the eye no longer distinguished between fields of tares 




Photo. Heilprin 



STREET SCENE— LAMENTIN 



and cane, and even the motley groups of refugees, who were 
fleeing from the shadow of the " bad mountain," were only 
with difficulty discernible on the open roadside. The vol- 
cano was rolling out from its crest-line a volume of cloud 
and ash that fairly bewildered the senses. Far up, two 
miles and more, the column of white curling vapors was 



ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 149 

still mounting upward — lifting, rolling and unrolling, until 
it lost itself in the general obscurity that surrounded it 
It seemed to be by itself, severed from any connection 
with mother earth. We were away six miles as the crow 
flies, and yet had to toss our heads far back to see the arch- 
ing summit-vapors thin out and melt into the cold blue of 
impending night. No sound issued from the bosom of the 
mountain, and only back of us could we hear the ocean's 
distant roar, and above, the gentle rustle of the mango- 
leaves as they dropped their still lingering crusts of ash. 
Could it be that this wonderful, almost silent nature was 
the same that but a few days before had wrought one of 
the greatest catastrophes which the world's history records ? 
As I watched the pensive face of our genial hostess, 
Mile. Marie, who looked long and steadfastly at the volcano, 
following the clouds of smoke until they had vanished in 
the blue of night, I noticed an air of sadness come over it. 
She too had lost what was dearest to her in that catastrophe. 
Yet, with a faithful allegiance to her trust, and without 
counting the moments of danger that were at all times hers, 
she remained to do her duty to the Clerc household, and to 
add to it what little of cheerful comfort could still be had. 
The house stands, shaded by its great rubber-trees, aged by 
a hundred and fifty years and more. On one side it looks 
over to the not very distant ocean, and on another across a 
deep valley which falls to the Riviere Capot, and rises be- 
yond to the slopes of Mont Pelee. Some ragged banana- 
leaves rise up in front of its bounding wall and there are 
tall and stately cocoanut-palms, others bowed down by 



150 ACEOSS THE ISLAND TO ASSIEE 

ash, and rows of the graceful filao or casuarina. Bleating 
sheep and goats gambol about, unmindful of the storm of 
life, and sleek cattle crop the herbage that still remains to 
them. A more ideal location for a sojourn could hardly be 
imagined; and we thought ourselves more than fortunate to 
have been invited to it. The Usine Vive, which was to 
furnish the mounts for our further journeys, was hardly two 
miles distant. Its position of near proximity to Mont Pelee, 
and the fact that it lies in a low level at the mouth of the 
Capot River, had caused it to be temporarily abandoned for 
night quarters, and a more congenial location was found at 
Assier. It was only four days before our coming, on the 
night of May 26, that Mont Pelee had gone through a 
paroxysm of action that caused more than one mind on this 
side of the mountain to waver, and to ask itself, When is 
the time? Its extraordinary electric illumination on that 
night, and the red effulgence that glowed through the 
ascending cloud, appeared to indicate a new storm, and it 
was not without reason that people, with so much that was 
already back of them, became apprehensive of their safety. 
It was then that the decision was arrived at to remove 
from Vive. That same evening a frightened multitude was 
hurrying over the road with hardly enough of night-light 
to give their flight a course. Men, women and children, 
black and white, on foot, on horseback and in wagon — all 
took a common course, to leave a long shadow between 
them and the volcano ; and Pelee continued to hurl out its 
lightning and thunder. 




Photo. Heilprin 



THE EVENING GLOW ON PELEE'S PENNANT 
From Assier 



X 

TO THE STORM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CRATER 

The morning of May 31 was chosen for the ascent of 
Mont Pelee. Our friends at Assier had prepared the little 
that was needed for this journey, and looked after our 
mounts, which we obtained at Vive, and the services of 
three Martinique boys, who were deputed to accompany us. 
Disturbed by mosquitoes and the anxiety that surrounded 
our contemplated journey, we had put in a somewhat sleep- 
less night, and it was with little happiness that we pro- 
ceeded to carry out our plan of attack. The heavy rains 
of the day before had blocked our effort to visit the Falaise, 
and report still had it that flood-waters had cut the road 
of the Capot. How much more the volcano was account- 
able for we could not know. 

The morning broke radiantly clear, and we felt measur- 
ably encouraged to our work. Mont Pelee, with its miles 
of towering steam, was sharply outlined against the western 
sky, and seemed to look peacefully and kindly to the sun- 
lit landscape that surrounded it. It was puffing only white, 
and there were no wicked yellow and black clouds to tell of 
its wrath. 

We were on our way shortly before six o'clock. The 
route lay, by circles and zigzags, westward, crossing the 
Riviere Capot, and then through fields of cane and open 
meadow-land, passing the village of Morne Balai with its 

151 



152 TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELBE'S CEATEE 

clumps of cocoa-palms and bananas, its growths of cassava 
and cane, and the blood-red hibiscus flowers scattered over 
the cement and thatching that now hardly knew an inhabi- 
tant. The closed door told of the flight from the home- 
stead. 

A little after nine o'clock we emerged upon the open 
slope of the volcano, at an elevation of perhaps twenty-one 
hundred feet above sea level. Ahead of us a long ridge- 
line, broadly undulating at first and then contracting into a 
fairly narrow arete, travelled almost directly westward to 
the summit of the mountain. Its gray and desolate surface, 
which only recently had been beautifully clothed with grass 
and forest, rose from us at an angle of fifteen to twenty 
degrees, gradually becoming steeper as it neared the top, 
where scoriae, boulders and angular fragments of ejected 
rock took the place of the ash of the lower slopes. At no 
point did the gradient exceed thirty-five degrees. Travel- 
ling over this ridge was not difficult, and we rapidly rose to 
heights which commanded charming views of the receding 
landscape, the blue ocean dashing its white surf against the 
vertical cliffs of the coast, the muddy Capot and its out- 
flowing sweep of chocolate, and, in the dim distance, the 
Presqu'Ile de la Caravelle. On either side of us was a 
fairly deep ravine, cut by the tumultuous waters which 
sweep down the mountain's slope, the sides hauging with 
broken and desolated gray forest, too dead to be sought now 
by the few birds that had remained in the region. We 
looked over into the adjoining chasm of the Riviere Falaise, 
hoping to locate the new " crater" that had broken out 



TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 153 

beneath the Trianon. The walls stood up like a burnt scar, 
but there was peace inside, and. not even a puff of vapor in 
which to read the history of the mud-torrent that the day 
before had run wild through the lower country. 

We left our animals in charge of one of the Martinique 
boys at an elevation of about two thousand two hundred 
feet, and slowly pushed on to the summit. The ascent was 
an easy one, even if fatiguing at times to the heart and 
lungs, and presented nothing more difficult" than the long 
slopes of some of our own Appalachian peaks. The course 
was direct, without zigzags of any kind ; and had it not been 
for the particular conditions which existed at the summit, 
the " climb" would have been without color-incident of any 
kind. As it was, we knew only inferentially what was 
taking place at the top, and were even in doubt as to 
whether the summit could be reached at all. Up to this 
time sky and weather had been most favorable, but the bat- 
tered volcano had begun to gather to its crown the island's 
mists, and its own clouds hung ominously over the summit. 
In a short half-hour the parting-line between the land 
and sky had been blotted out, and the balance of our ascent 
was made in cloudland. A discomforting rain fell upon us, 
and when we finally reached the summit of the mountain, 
shortly before eleven o'clock, the weather was decidedly 
nasty. My aneroid indicated an elevation of three thousand 
nine hundred and seventy-five feet. We were standing on 
what had been assumed to be the rim of the old crater, on 
the rim of the basin that contained the Lac des Palmistes. 
Between shifts in the clouds we obtained spectral glimpses 



154 TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 

of the opposing mornes or pitons, their ragged lines rising 
perhaps two hundred feet higher, and of the flat basin that 
stretched off to their bases. But of the lake there was 
nothing;. So much of the basin as we could see was abso- 
lutely dry, its floor brought up to a nearly uniform level 
through the fragmental discharges from the volcano. At 




Photo. Heilpr 



ASH-CLOUD OF PELEE— FROM NEAR ASSIER 



the point where we reached it there was a clearly marked 
border rising two to three feet above the floor. 

It was evident at a glance that the old " crater," con- 
trary to general belief and scientific report, had not been 
blown out. It remained where picnic parties, seeking its 
beautiful waters, annually found it to be, where the blue 



TO THE STOEM-CLOTJD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 155 

lobelia adorned its banks, and where dwarf palms, suc- 
ceeding to luxuriant forest, told the land of the tropical 
sun. To-day not a trace of vegetable growth remained, 
not even a lichen found attachment on the rough-surfaced 
rocks that broke out from the scoriated floor. This, at 
least, was what my observation told me. We sought in 
vain the position of the vent whence issued the miles of 
steam and ash that formed the spectacle of the morning, of 
the evening before, and of every day since the eruption of 
May 2. It should have been near to us, but where was 
it? We could clearly hear the rumbling in its interior, 
the grondement of continuing work, but the eye failed to 
penetrate the sea of clouds that enveloped us, and made 
our field of search necessarily limited. Ordinarily we 
could see but a score of yards ahead, and frequently not 
that far, and in the tempest that swept the mountain we 
dared not attempt the actual exploration of the summit. 

A crash of thunder, that seemed to rend the very heart 
of the mountain, broke the storm upon us, and silenced 
all other sounds. In an instant more a second crash, and 
the lightning cut frenzied zigzags across the blackened 
cloud-world of quivering Pelee. Then a third and a 
fourth, and the pitons rolled the echoes to one another like 
artillery fire. There was no need to look at one another — 
we knew that we were in a storm- world of our own. What- 
ever was taking place, was being acted immediately about 
us. It was a strange sensation this, sitting not knowing 
exactly where and having as an unseen neighbor one of the 
mightiest destroying engines of the globe. The rain de- 



156 TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 

scended in merciless torrents, and the lightning cut blind- 
ing flashes about us. We sat bowed over our instruments, 
to give them partial covering, but our clothing, so far as 
protection to ourselves was concerned, might almost as well 
have been in the sea. We hoped for a change, but there 
was none. Our Boys were unhappy and trembling in fear 
of the volcano, and silent tears appealed for a descent. 
They knew as well as we did that there could be but a 
short interval between us and the fiery caldron, and they 
knew, perhaps better than we did, that some of the detona- 
tions which we had preferably referred to thunder were in 
reality the warning notes of the volcano. Leadbeater and I 
were not yet ready for the descent. That for which we had 
climbed the mountain had eluded us, and yet could hardly 
be more than a stone's throw away. We knew not pre- 
cisely the condition, and dared not search ; but we thought 
that a favoring gust might lift the clouds, and permit us to 
see ahead. It did not come. My barometer had indicated 
no gathering storm, no more than did the barometer of 
Saint Pierre during the eruptions preceding the event of 
May 8, and indicated no change now. The compass on the 
crater rim showed, however, a variation of from thirty de- 
grees to forty degrees eastward, the north needle being 
turned sharply in the direction of Vive. 

Three-quarters of an hour of Pelee's storm was suffi- 
cient. It was perhaps the most trying of any like period 
that I had, up to this time, experienced, and thinking it 
useless to remain longer on the summit, I decided upon a 
retreat. 



TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 157 

We were both storm-beaten and mind-beaten. A clay's 
effort had yielded little beyond permitting us to say that 
we had reached the summit of the mountain. The descent 
was as rapid as the conditions of the atmosphere and moun- 
tain would permit, but it was not easy work. The deluge 
had graven uncomfortable hollows and fissures in the vol- 
cano's sides, and running streams of mud and water had 
taken the place of the hard slope of the early morning. 
There was no longer a secure foothold anywhere, and it 
was with difficulty that we kept from sliding into the gorge 
that lay on both sides of us. By the time we reached our 
mules, which had been taken to a lower level by the fright- 
ened attendant, the storm had partially lifted, and to our 
surprise, looking beneath the clouds, we found the Falaise, 
which had been running quietly on our up-journey, seeth- 
ing with steam, and threading its course to the Capot and 
to the sea in a long train of curling and puffing vapors. 
We followed with our eyes the circuit of the steaming river 
for miles across the still fairly green country, watching 
the vapor columns as they wildly tossed and bowed, but 
hearing no sounds beyond those of our immediate neigh- 
borhood. The scene was an extraordinary one, and one 
that could only be compared in its effect to a chain of loco- 
motives steaming in line. At this time we thought that 
Pelee had broken out on the side turned to us, and was 
disengaging its mud directly into the trough of the Falaise. 

Our experience on the narrowed summit of Pelee 
during this first ascent was so novel and so personal in its 
sensations that it seems only natural to place here the im- 



158 TO THE STORM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATER 

pressions of my associate, Mr. Leadbeater, as he has re- 
corded thern elsewhere. No apology is, therefore, necessary 
for introducing this portion of his graphic narrative : 

When we reached the edge of the old crater, at an elevation of 
about four thousand feet (the basin that had contained the Lac des 
Palmistes), it rained in torrents. We waited about fifteen minutes, 
hoping it would clear up and enable us to see something. Suddenly 
there crashed out of the very air above our heads a cannonading so 
terrific that the mountain seemed to quake and tremble before it. 
It took us some minutes to realize that it was a peal of thunder. 
Then it commenced to thunder and lightning incessantly, and the 
thunder followed so quickly after the lightning that they seemed to 
come simultaneously. The awful lightning flashes came in sheets and 
bolts of fire and were blinding rather than illuminating. Indeed, the 
thunder was so loud that we could feel the ground heave, as it were, 
under us, and the air about us vibrate. It rained so hard we could 
not see ten feet away, and so awed were we by the thunder and light- 
ning, and so oppressed by the hot, sultry atmosphere, that we did not 
know but that we were being overwhelmed by another eruption. I 
placed my camera on the ground and lay upon it to keep it dry. 
But it rained through my clothes, and it must have penetrated even 
through my body, for the camera was soaked. Those frightful 
minutes when I lay on the ground shielding my camera, with the 
rain descending in perfect floods of water — I never knew it could rain 
as it did then — with the appalling thunder-charged flashes playing 
incessantly about me and the very air quivering with the rapidity of 
the detonations, and but a few feet away the seething, sweltering 
crater of the most destructive volcano the world has ever seen, will 
always stand out in my memory as a weird and horrible dream. At 
last we could bear it no longer, and started to come down the moun- 
tain, following our tracks as best we could. While descending the 
mountain we found that the heavy rains had washed gorges in the 
mud-covering of the mountain two to three feet deep, and in the 



TO THE STOKM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CRATER 159 

blinding rain we frequently stopped on the edge of one of these 
gullies, which, suddenly giving way, caused us to slip and slide most 
of the way down. When we got to the end of the " hogback," where 
we left the mules, they and their keeper had gone. We found them 
later on farther down the mountain standing in the bright sunshine. 

Our day's work, while giving to us many novel and 
imperishable sensations, had terminated unsuccessfully. 
We had been repulsed by the volcano, mudded and 
drenched in a way that severely cautioned us in any further 
effort not to inquire too closely into nature's hidden secrets. 
The great caldron of blowing steam and ash had not been 
reached, or even seen, although we could hardly have been 
more than a hundred yards from its border. The question 
still remained, where and how was it ? The evening wore 
off quietly as that of the preceding day, and Pelee once 
more presented itself in its form of grand and unconquered 
magnificence. I studied carefully its vast steam-cloud, with 
its ominous puffs of yellow and brown, and attempted to 
locate the precise position of its emergence ; but what we 
saw this evening, we had seen the evening before, and also 
on the evening before that. The lesson still remained to 
be learned, and I determined upon another ascent for the 
following day. 

Kennan, Jaccaci and Varian, three other investigators 
of the phenomena of Mont Pelee, had by this time come in 
from Morne Rouge, and, inspired by the extraordinary 
workings of the volcano which they had witnessed there 
and at Vive, had also determined upon an ascent. We 
joined forces. As on the day before, the mounts were 



160 TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PBLEE'S CEATEE 

obtained at Vive, which also furnished the somewhat larger 
number of attendants and carriers who were to do duty for 
us. We left the latter place shortly after seven-thirty. Our 
route, except in some narrowing curves, was virtually the 
same that we had travelled the day before. Once past 
Morne Balai, we followed the direct course to the eastern 
arete, up which we somewhat laboriously picked our way. 
The ascent, owing to the still soft and completely rifted 
condition of the surface brought about by the heavy rains, 
was considerably more fatiguing than on the previous day, 
but reaching the summit was merely " a pulling away at it," 
with plenty of stops to take breath and ease the heart's 
action. The heat of the open sunlight was, however, very 
trying, and it was intense on the exposed slope of cinder 
and ash. There was not even the whisper of a breeze. 
Mr. Jaccaci succumbed to an early attack of acute dizziness 
or vertigo, and was obliged to abandon the ascent. When 
we came up to the old-crater rim, the Lac des Palmistes, 
shortly before eleven o'clock, the weather and mountain 
conditions were desperately like those which ushered in the 
storm of the preceding day. The aged mountain had again 
buried its head in cloud and vapor, and growling thunder 
reverberations held out little hope that we should be able 
to accomplish more than we had already done. Of the dis- 
tant lowland only parting patches could now be seen, and 
before long even these were blotted out by mist and rain. 
On the top it was all cloudland, and with squally rains 
coming and going in quick turns. 

We caught fleeting glimpses of the opposing mornes 



TO THE STORM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CRATER 161 

that rimmed in the basin at its farther side, but as yet saw 
nothing that gave more than a feeble indication as to where 
might be the line of the working crater. My aneroid read- 
ing, without correction for temperature, gave for our posi- 
tion — the same that we had occupied the day before — four 
thousand and twenty-five feet, which satisfied me that the 
old level of the mountain had been maintained, and that 
there had been, contrary to what had been reported, no 
subsidence as the result of the catastrophic explosion of the 
8th. It is true that the piton which bore the cross on the 
Morne de La Croix had tumbled as the result of a fracture, 
but this loss to the mountain of perhaps fifty to one hun- 
dred feet in no way disturbed the general aspect or mass 
of the volcano. The shallow trough of the former Lac is 
now floored with angular blocks and fragments of ancient 
volcanic debris, forming part of the former stock of the 
volcano, and with recently ejected scoriae, lapilli and mud- 
ash. These built up the outer face, for three hundred feet 
or more, of the top portion of the main cone. I took the 
temperature at several points on the lake-floor and over the 
rim of the basin and found it to be, at two or three inches 
below the surface, 124° to 130° F. ; at one point, at a greater 
depth, the mercury rose to 162°. It was evident that this 
high temperature, about 60° above that of the air, was 
merely that of the ejected material which had not yet had 
the time to cool. Puffs of steam and sulphur vapor were 
issuing from a number of surface vents, and from beneath 
great boulder masses whose ragged and heated surfaces were 

scarred with yellow sulphur blotches, and gave evidence of 

li 



162 TO THE STOBM-CLOTJD OF PELEE'S CRATER 

having only recently been hurled to their places from the 
volcano's mouth. 

We waited patiently for a lifting of the clouds, and it 
came at last. Below the mountain's clouds we could clearly 
mark out the ascending column of steam, with its flocculent 
whorls rolling in upon themselves and upward. The posi- 
tion of the crater had been located, but alas ! it was for 
hardly more than an instant. The scene had shifted and 
disappeared. We were once more in cloudland, waiting 
and hoping, with our Martinique boys impatient of their 
assumed trials. 

An angry cold wind was now swirling around both sides 
of the mountaiu, and with it came a seemingly hopeless 
rain. All of a sudden a gust cleared the summit, and a 
white sunlight illumined the near horizon. It seemed 
hardly more than three hundred feet from us. Across the 
steaming lake-bed, little mindful of its puffs of vapor and 
sulphur, we dashed to the line above which welled out the 
steam-cloud of the volcano, and almost in an instant stood 
upon the rim of the giant rift in whose interior the world 
was being made in miniature. We had reached our point. 
We were four feet, perhaps less, from a point whence a 
plummet could be dropped into the seething furnace, witness- 
ing a scene of terrorizing grandeur which can be conceived 
only by the very few who have observed similar scenes 
elsewhere. Momentary flashes of light permitted us to 
see far into the tempest-tossed caldron, but at no time was 
the floor visible, for over it rolled the vapors that rose out 
to mountain heights. With almost lightning speed they 



TO THE STOEM-CLOUB OP PELEE'S CRATER 163 

were shot out into space, to be lost almost as soon as they 
had appeared. Facing us, at a distance of seemingly not 
more than two hundred and fifty feet, danced the walls of 
what appeared to be the opposing face of the crater, and 
somewhat nearer the ragged white rocks, burnt-out cinder 
masses, whose brilliant incandescence flashed out like 









Photo. Heilprin 



A BURST FROM THE CRATER 



beacon-lights some days after the fatal 8th, and even at 
our later day illumined the night-crown of the volcano 
with a glow of fire. We could not tell at the time if they 
were part of a cinder-cone, or merely an accumulated heap 
that had been piled upon itself. The spectacle was a stu- 
pendous one, — like a wild tempest raging everywhere. We 



164 TO THE STOBM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATBE 

stood silent, overawed in its presence. The ground trembled 
at times, but never with any degree of force. We felt no 
inconvenience from either gas or steam. A low rumbling 
detonation, broken at intervals by louder bursts, crept about 
the hidden floor of the interior, from which also issued the 
sounds of clinking, falling and sliding cinders, the hissing 
of the emerging steam — sounds which one would fain de- 
scribe were it possible to do so. I tried so far as it was 
possible to localize the issuing sounds, but the "blanket- 
ing" by the enormous masses of swirling steam prevented 
this ; everything seemed to come from everywhere, with 
no marked accentuation in any particular quarter. Occa- 
sional gusts of wind cleared the foreground, and displayed 
the giant smoke-column in grand magnificence. 

Our Martinique boys appeared to be as much impressed 
by the scene as we ourselves were, and for a time lost all 
fear of the awakening dragon. We found that we were 
standing on the edge of a vertical, perhaps even overhang- 
ing, cliff, and not feeling disposed to remain longer than 
was necessary to make note-book observations and take pho- 
tographic views, left rather precipitately for lower regions. 

I felt that finally I had stood over nature's great labora- 
tory, and been permitted to study some of its workings. 
Many years before on Vesuvius I had gazed into the crater 
funnel, and watched the molten magma of the earth rise 
and fall, but the scene was one that could not compare 
with this, grand and inspiring though it was. I attempted 
to locate the axis of the vent as nearly as the direction of 
the largely-obscured walls and the position of the basin of 



TO THE STOEM-CLOUD OF PELEE'S CEATEE 165 

the Lac des Palmistes permitted, which was north to south, 
slightly southwest. The magnetic needle, which showed 
such a marked deflection on the border of the lake-basin, 
was normal or nearly so. The form of the crater was at 
this time that of a caldron-rift, pitching steeply downward, 
and opening in a direction a little off from the line to Saint 
Pierre. The length could be only roughly approximated, 
and at no time could we positively ascertain the extreme 
boundaries. There can be no question that it traversed the 
position of the narrow rift known as the Fente, or the Terre 
Fendue, which had been a feature of the mountain since the 
eruption of 1851, perhaps considerably preceding that event 
in its existence. 

The fact that, standing on the rim of so active a crater, 
we were not inconvenienced by any marked excess of tem- 
perature seems rather remarkable, and might be thought 
to find its explanation in the very rapidly ascending masses 
of steam — the condition of continuous atmospheric dis- 
placements which it brought about. But even these were 
little appreciable where we stood, which was more like a 
region of almost absolute calm, despite the storm that raged 
in its centre, than one of flickering disturbance. 



XI 
THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

Mont Pelee, or more properly, Montagne Pelee, which, 
prior to the eruption of May 8, was barely known beyond 
its own little territory, occupies with its contreforts nearly 
the whole northern section of the island of Martinique. Its 
humble height, hardly equalling that of famous Ben Nevis 
of the Scottish Highlands, does not permit it to loom up 
lofty, but it holds it crown veiled in mist during the greater 
part of the day. 

The volcano derives its appellation of " bald mountain" 
from a bare spot which it carried about its crown at the 
time when it was first described by Dutertre in (about) 
1640; and inferentially this characteristic is reviewed by 
Father Labat, who in his " Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de 
FAmerique" (the Hague, 1724) refers to himself as the 
"pere (or Mont) pele" (bald father). Just where or how 
this bald spot on the volcano was located cannot at this 
time be determined, for it is certain that in the past, as well 
as in the recent present, the mountain was covered with a 
luxuriant vegetation quite to its summit; and I am in- 
formed that even the precipitous face of the Morne de La 
Croix was similarly garnished. Felix Lombard, in his 
paper " La Martinique et les JErreurs des Geographes"* 

* Eevue Scientifique, August 9, 1884. 
166 



THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 167 

dwells emphatically upon this characteristic of the moun- 
tain, and asserts that at the time of his writing the volcano 
was visible in its full extent, and entirely covered with 
most vigorous green (vert le plus vigoureux) . 

The "grands bois" or what have frequently been re- 
ferred to by writers as the forest primeval, with all the 
wealth and luxuriance of vegetation that a tropical nature 
can supply, were the glory of the mountain. MM. Lep- 
rieur, Peyraud and Rufz, who composed the scientific com- 
mission that investigated the eruption of August, 1851, 
speak in their report of the magnificent woodlands of Bro- 
melia, Melastome and Gay Lussacia that they were obliged 
to traverse, and which only thinned off to lighter woods 
near the summit. Hearn describes the same forest forty 
years later, and refers rapturously to the beauties and fasci- 
nation of the tangled mazes which held one at almost every 
step. Even so late as the closing days of April of the 
present year the woodland was in nearly its full magnifi- 
cence. Little or nothing remains of all this on the sides 
where the outflows took place, and it is astonishing how 
completely the traces of the vegetable growth have been ex- 
tinguished. Mont Pelee shows up from the west and south- 
west naked as though it had never known a cover. But far 
beyond the line of absolute destruction, the tree-growth has 
been crippled, grayed and laid to low measure by the ash 
that has fallen upon it. On the eastern face of the moun- 
tain the zone of destruction, previous to the great eruption 
of August 30, covered only the middle and upper slopes ; 
and the forest, though battered and burned, remained stand- 



168 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

ing in part. To-day this has also passed, and the slopes lie 
bared as on the side turned to Saint Pierre. Three days 
before the August eruption I noted the cindered forest of 
the Falaise gorge, at an elevation of from seventeen hundred 
to eighteen hundred feet, returning to life, with brilliant 
greens decking the new crowns. The revivifying tree-ferns 
were especially beautiful. New life was also beginning to 
clothe the ridge-sands of the Rivieres des Peres and Seche 
on the southwest. All of this has disappeared — most of it 
extinguished absolutely. Of the growth of palms at the 
summit of the mountain, and the clumps of fern and lobelia 
that in the early part of the year delighted the visitor to 
the Lac des Palmistes, not a vestige remains — nothing to 
indicate that such, or other, vegetable growths could ever 
have existed. 

The summit of Mont Pelee, which commands a superb 
view of the island and of its surrounding ocean, was prior 
to the May eruption constructed in greater part of a small 
lake-basin and of a line of bounding heights lying on its 
western and northern sides. The highest of these, which 
bore the cross * that was placed upon it by the late Pere 
Mary, was the Morne de La Croix, whose height is roughly 
assumed to have been two hundred and fifty or three hun- 
dred feet. Its elevation above the sea is generally stated to 
have been four thousand four hundred and twenty-eight 
feet, which is the measurement of Dupuget 15 in 1796 ; but 
the determinations of the scientific commission of 1851 give 

* Replacing the more ancient one. 




Photo. Heilprin 



ON THE VOLCANO'S DEVASTATED SLOPE 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 169 

for the full height of the volcano only four thousand one 
hundred and ninety feet (twelve hundred and seventy- 
seven metres), which conforms closely to my own baro- 
metric values, and, I believe, more nearly represents the 
true altitude. 

The lake itself was a shallow pan of water whose sur- 
face lay but little below the bounding lip of the basin on 
the eastern side. Leprieur, Peyraud and Rufz, who visited 
it in 1851, immediately after the eruption of that year, 
describe it as being about three hundred paces in cir- 
cumference, and resting on a floor of mud and pumice 
fragments. Their estimate is, I believe, an approximately 
correct one, although the lake is sometimes described as 
having been very much larger. Beyond the position that 
it occupies, there is little to suggest for it the nature of a 
crater-lake, which it is very generally assumed to be, and it 
may be reasonably questioned whether it had this structure. 
Labat refers to this summit lake in his work published in 
1722 (1724), but it would seem that its crateral origin was 
assumed only after the publication by Jonnes of his paper 
"Explorations Geologiques et Miner alogiques du Volcan 
eteint de la Montagne Pelee." * The reference to the lake 
is, however, not very clear ; and the statement that the 
"great crater is now converted into a lake" (translation) 
may very properly refer to the crater on the southwest side 

* Bulletin Societe Philomatique de Paris, 1820, p. 8. Pelee was 
ascended by La Condamine, who also made a measurement of the 
mountain, but I have been unable to obtain the record of observations 
made on this visit. 



170 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

and to the Etang Sec. Jonnes could hardly have referred 
to the summit lake as occupying a large crater. 16 

At the time of my visit, this attractive mountain tarn, 
Which for many years had been the central point to pic- 
nicking parties of an extensive region around, and to which 
an excursion had been planned in Saint Pierre for the 4th 
of May, had disappeared, and no trace of the waters re- 
mained. The basin itself had been largely filled in with 
matter ejected from the volcano, so that the floor lay only 
from two to three feet below the rim on the eastern side. 
The floor was still steaming over most of its part, and it 
gave out a peculiar " steamed" odor of mineral oil. I esti- 
mated the distance across the basin to the foot of the Morne 
de La Croix to be about three hundred feet. In just what 
manner the lake-water was thrown off as the result of the 
first eruption cannot be known ; but it is reasonable to 
assume that the greater part of it may have been steamed 
off by the heated ejecta that were thrown into it. There 
is nothing to support the view that it was in any way 
sucked into the crater and became a determining factor in 
the explosion. The lake-basin remains intact, and has 
undergone no changes beyond that of infilling. 

Of the ejecta covering the lake-floor the greater part was 
at the time of my first visit constituted of mud-ash and 
angular blocks or fragments of andesite, trachyte (?) and 
diorite, with here and there scattered boulders and 
" bombs" of large size and composite character, and rep- 
resenting the ancient stock of the volcano. Some of these 
were coated with sulphur crusts, and others with iron- 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 171 

chloride. Steam was issuing vigorously from their sur- 
faces, and equally so from the general floor of the lake- 
basin. In crossing the basin we were obliged to thread 
our way carefully between these steam-jets, which were 
still numerous, especially towards the side of the crater. 
My thermometer, thrust two and three inches beneath 
the surface, gave a temperature of from one hundred 




Photo. Heilprin 

BASIN OF THE LAC DES PALMISTES AND THE SHATTERED 
MORNE DE LA CROIX 

and twenty-four to one hundred and thirty-two degrees, 
and at a somewhat deeper point, one hundred and sixty- 
three degrees. At the time of my last visit to the Lac 
des Palmistes, August 30, the summit of the volcano was 
so completely shrouded in clouds, steam and ash that it 
was impossible to make topographic observations of any 
kind ; nor, indeed, in the face of the raking fire of bombs, 
did I feel disposed to penetrate beyond the crest of the 



172 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

mountain. The changes that may have taken place on this 
little plateau-summit as the result of the more recent ac- 
tivities of the volcano are, therefore, unknown to me ; but 
so far as I could judge of them from a distance, they could 
not have been very marked. 

The plateau-summit of the volcano, which is thus partly 
occupied by the basin of the Lac des Palmistes, slopes off 
southward in the direction of Morne Rogue, and " spills" off 
on the east and southeast in a gradual coalescence with the 
outer slopes of the mountain. On the southwest, where it 
falls in with the crest of the crater, there is a rise of a few 
yards, and then follows the plunging wall of the crater. 
The westerly (or crater) wall of the Morne de La Croix 
drops into the basin of the Etang Sec at an angle (in its 
upper part) of hardly less than seventy degrees — a pic, to 
use the expression of French investigators. How much 
of the Morne de La Croix has fallen, no one positively 
knows ; but it is certain, as could easily be determined by 
a comparison of contours, that not nearly so much of it 
disappeared in the early weeks following the eruption of 
May 8 as was generally supposed. I should rather believe 
that its height was lessened only by from fifty to seventy 
feet, instead of the one hundred and fifty as claimed. The 
fall of the piton itself — i.e., of the pinnacle surmounting 
the Morne — seems to have been finally accomplished on 
May 24, as is published in U Opinion of Fort-de-France, 
in despatches from Morne Capot, as follows : one-twenty 
p.m., " Autre fragment Piton s'est ecroule ;" and eight P.M., 
"Piton disparu completement." 



THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 173 

Mont Pelee has not the conical outline of the typical 
volcano, but is elongated on a northwest and southeast axis, 
with the highest point lying in the northwest. It is plain 
to see in this direction that it is only part of a former 
larger mountain, whose buttressed masses lie still farther 
to the north, and of which the Morne Siberie and the 
Piton Pierreux, the latter nearly two thousand feet in ele- 
vation, are still prominent relics. The sea face is on this 
side abrupt and precipitous, presenting ragged bluffs and 
promontories, with some detached islands and island points. 
Standing off some little distance from this side of the 
coast, the spectator obtains the only symmetrically con- 
toured outline of the volcano, and notes the majestic extent 
of its great flanks as they sweep over the whole forefoot of 
the island. The gently falling slopes to the interior, being 
usually free of complication and rising with low gradients 
of from fifteen to twenty-five degrees, are exceedingly 
pleasing to the eye, and conform to the picture of many of 
the other volcanic mountains of the Lesser Antilles. To- 
wards the southeast, Pelee sends out a long ridge to unite 
with the mass of the Pitons de Carbet, the point of second 
elevation in the land (three thousand nine hundred and 
sixty feet), and thus builds out, with the peaks of Carbet 
and their long slopes, nearly the whole mountain relief of 
two-thirds of the island of Martinique. The volcano itself 
covers a surface area of about fifty square miles. 

The singular manner in which the mountain has been 
cut up into ridge-backs and deeply separating water-ways, 
all radiating from almost the exact centre of the volcano, 



174 THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

may liken it to a many-rayed elevated star. Some of 
these ridge-backs are sharp enough to permit them to be 
called aretes, and they fall off rapidly into the troughs that 
lie on either side. Streams of various degrees of strength 
occupy these troughs, and in nearly all cases have indi- 
vidual courses directed to the sea. On the east side alone 
are they tributary to a major water, the Riviere Capot, 
which rises in a fairly deep basin several miles to the east- 
ward of Saint Pierre, and defines approximately the eastern 
boundary of the region that is dominated by the volcano. 
All of these streams, with the exception of the Capot, have 
courses of not more than four or five miles in a direct line, 
but despite this condition many have proved wildly destruc- 
tive during periods of heavy rains. More than one settle- 
ment keeps in sad memory the picture of ruin which water 
and rock have wrought. Basse-Pointe and Precheur, with 
their acres of giant rocks, their canoned streets and battered 
walls, read impressively this side chapter from the history 
of Mont Pelee. I determined the height of the flood-water 
of the Falaise, at its confluence with the Capot, to have been 
at least thirty-five feet above the normal level of the two 
streams. The extended flood-plain is at this point covered 
with giant boulders, many of them five feet and more in 
diameter, and all of them rounded as though they had 
travelled for many miles. I measured some exceptional 
blocks that were from eight to twelve feet in length. All 
the masses were volcanic, — basalts, andesites, trachytes, 
pumice, etc., — and represented the old stock of the volcano 
or of its predecessor. Their perfectly rounded and planed 



THE GBOGEAPHY OF MONT PELEE 175 

forms, which were unmistakably not due to weathering or to 
internal disintegration, suggest for them a possible oceanic 
location, placed high on the slopes of the volcano as the 
result of land-elevation. They seem to be more than the 
simple surface deposit of earlier eruptions. The condition 
of the Falaise was similar to that which we observed in the 
case of the streams of Precheur and Basse-Pointe. 

Not less than twenty-five streams, about one-half of 
which have been dignified with the name of Riviere, radiate 
from the slopes of Pelee, and the greater number of these 
occupy deep ravines or well-defined Thalwegs." The most 
important of those flowing to the northern side of the island 
are the Grande Riviere, the Riviere Macouba, and the 
Falaise. 

The Precheur, on the west, is responsible for the de- 
struction, on the 6th and 7th of May, of the village of 
the same name, situated near its mouth. Farther south are 
the Blanche, Seche, and Riviere des Peres, the last-named 
limiting Saint Pierre on its farther side, and separating 
it from the faubourg of Fonds-Core. The Roxelane alone 
of Pelee's waters entered Saint Pierre. Built up in part 
with walls, and surmounted by attractive gardens and villas, 
it formed perhaps the most picturesque feature of the 
city. 

Of all these various waters, the Riviere Blanche, by 
reason of its close association with the crater of the volcano, 
has become the most noted in the later history of Mont 
Pelee. It was into the channel of this stream that the 
boiling mud from the Etang Sec, which wrecked the Usine 



176 THE GEOGEAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

Guerin on May 5, and brought the first casualties of the 
eruption, was precipitated. In its upper part, and just 
below the crater-basin, its course is directed through a 
narrow and deeply-incised ravine, with steeply-sloping walls, 
the abrupt contours of which, so far as the facts given to me 
indicate, were fashioned subsequent to the events of early 
May. This whole slope of the -volcano, which is ragged 
and torn through many eruptions, is wildly terrifying in 
aspect, and much of it is sprinkled with boulders which 
have latterly been shot out from the forming cone, or rolled 
down on its outer face. 

The great feature of Mont Pelee that has been accent- 
uated as the result of its recent activities is the crater, whose 
caldron lies southwest and west of the summit of the moun- 
tain, and rises up directly under the lee of the Morne de La 
Croix. The steep face of the Morne plunges into it at an 
angle of seventy degrees or more. The feature is not an 
entirely new one, as it is clear from the topographic descrip- 
tion of the region given by the commission of 1851, and 
from observation made just before the main cataclysm of 
this year, that a soufriere or crater-basin existed on the site 
of the present one already at the time of its earlier erup- 
tion. This is the basin of the Etang Sec, situated as nearly 
as I can state it from an approximate eye-measurement 
taken at an elevation of sixteen hundred feet, and from the 
observations of others, about twenty-four hundred to twenty- 
six hundred feet high on the southwestern slope of the 
mountain, and consequently from fifteen hundred to sixteen 
hundred feet below the lowest part of the rim of the crater- 



THE GEOGRAPHY OP MONT PELEE 177 

wall on the east side (the plateau surface of the Lac des 
Palmistes). 

The altered condition of the mountain, combined with 
the vagueness of past descriptions, has made it difficult to 
recognize the exact topographic features as they had been 
previously determined, and which appear to have been 
known to the inhabitants of Saint Pierre and of the imme- 
diate surroundings almost alone.* Hence many errors have 
crept into the descriptions that have already been given. 
It was my good fortune to have with me as companion on 
my partial ascent of the volcano on August 24 one who was 
thoroughly familiar with the old mountain, and could with- 
out hesitation locate the main features in a comparison with 
the old topography. From our point of observation at the 
head of the arete which abuts against the caldron that 
contains the source of the Piviere Seche, at an elevation of 
sixteen hundred feet, and directly in face of the mouth of 
the old crater, we had a clear view of the summit of the 
mountain, of the great central cone, and of the deep gorge 
of the Piviere Blanche, where it issues from below the 
lower lip of the crater. The relations of all the different 
parts were thus made clear to us. 

The most accurate description of the crater that has been 

* The lack of precise knowledge regarding the points of Mont 
Pelee is well shown by the narrative of the " guide," Julien Romain, 
contained in Les Colonies in the issue of May 5, which j)laces the 
Morne de La Croix on the western side of the crater-basin, and the 
Etang Plein (Lac des Palmistes) still farther west of the Morne de La 
Croix ! 

12 



178 THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

published, so far as I know, is that of Dr. E. O. Hovey, 
contained in his Preliminary Report on the Martinique 
and St. Vincent Eruptions, and which appears in the Bulle- 
tin of the American Museum of Natural History (October 
11, 1902). The author there correctly recognizes a circum- 
valent rising valley partially surrounding a central or sub- 
central active cone of cinders, and bounded on all sides 
from the southeast to the northwest by high and precipitous 
walls, composed of ancient tuff-agglomerates and lava-beds, 
which culminate in the impending andesitic mass of the 
Morne de La Croix. This great encircling wall, which falls 
on the southwest to an elevation of about thirty-two hun- 
dred feet, and in some parts is retained as an acutely narrow 
ridge, reminding me forcibly of the encircling wall of the 
Nevado de Toluca, in Mexico, is perhaps a little more than 
a mile in length. Dr. Hovey estimated the width of the 
entire basin at its summit to be about half a mile, which, I 
believe, cannot be far from the truth, and agrees well with 
the earlier measurements that had been made for the cuvette 
of the Etang Sec. When I first reached the rim of the 
crater on June 1 the opposing wall appeared to be only a 
few hundred feet distant, but we could not at that time, 
owing to the surcharging of the crater with steam and ash, 
recognize that this wall was part of a central cone. The 
steam-cloud was rising in vast swirls from the eastern 
floor of the caldron, and obscured everything (excepting in 
fleeting vistas) but the immediate foreground. 

The crater pitches steeply downward from the northeast 
to the southwest, conformably with the line of its axis. Its 



THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 



179 



northwest boundary is emphasized by the prominent lava- 
mass of the Ti-Bolhommes, whose finger-pinnacle, rising to 
perhaps four thousand feet elevation above the sea — a veri- 
table " devil's thumb" — is a marked figure in the summit 
landscape of the volcano. The present form of this moun- 




Plioto. Heilprin 



PELEE SMOKING FROM FRAGMENTAL CONE 



tain seems to have considerably changed since the days 
before the eruption of May 8, as I cannot find on any of 
the earlier photographs a form corresponding in outline 
with that which now appears ; and my associate from Fort- 
de-France assured me that the dent summit had been very 
greatly developed. It may be that it was formerly covered 



180 THE GEOGEAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

in part by agglomerates, whose removal lias now exposed 
a greater and sharper surface. 

The active central cone of the crater, a vast accumula- 
tion of fragmented rock, cinders and ashes, which has built 
itself up since the latter days of April, occupies basally 
almost the entire basin of the ancient Etang Sec. It gives 
the appearance of being a vast talus heap, and its steep 
slopes, of thirty to forty degrees or more, were at the time 
of our studies on August 24 being constantly carved by 
trailing masses of rock and boulders. These ejected blocks, 
some of which could hardly have been less than from fif- 
teen to twenty feet across, were being hurled down to the 
head of the gorge of the Riviere Blanche, and they swept 
vast clouds of dust into the steam that was issuing in puffs 
from nearly all points of the surface. The whole cone 
was at times in ferment, and it was manifest that steam was 
being blown or forced through the entire thickness of wall. 

The great steam pennant of the volcano, however, issued 
directly from the absolute summit of this cone, and clearly 
located the position of the open chimney. As it emerged 
at the top it covered practically the full summit of the cone, 
and rose almost continuously with the outer slopes. It was 
thus made impossible to determine, even approximately, 
the dimensions of the actual opening, the steam manifestly 
escaping through a part of the summit cap itself. But the 
width of the main centrally-ascending steam-column could 
not well have been less than four hundred or five hundred 
feet, which is what I roughly estimated to be the diameter 
of the summit of the cone. The spectacle of Mont Pelee 




Photo. Heilprin 



THE MAJESTY OF PELEE'S INFERNO 
The crater from the crater-rim — June i, 1902 



THE CIEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 181 

smoking away from its beautifully-defined chimney-pot was 
a superb one, wholly different from anything that I had 
seen on my first visit. Measured by the eye, and on many 
excellent photographs which I was fortunate in taking, I 
should say that the summit of the cone at the time of our 
observations rose to the full height of the Morne de La 
Croix, which it hid from view, and, therefore, considerably 
above the general summit of the mountain. 17 It overtopped 
the pinnacle of the Ti-Bolhommes by at least one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred feet. Its full constructed height, 
measured from the lowest point of its talus base, in the south- 
west, can hardly be less than fifteen hundred or sixteen 
hundred feet — all of it raised up since the latter days of 
April. My ascent of the volcano on August 30, the day 
of the great eruption, was largely for the purpose of more 
accurately determining the measure of this giant cone, but 
the conditions of the atmosphere on the summit were such 
that the parts of the volcano could not be seen. No part 
of the cone, nor of the Morne de La Croix, is in view from 
Vive. 

On August 24, when I attempted the ascent from the 
side of Saint Pierre, two black " horns," one standing ver- 
tically on the southeastern border, and the other projecting 
horizontally, were clearly discernible with a glass to border 
the crest of the cone. They may have been segregated 
masses of cinders, fused in such a way as to present the 
appearance of compact rock. It is possible that to their 
incandescence was due the two fiery lights on the crown 
which we observed in the early morning of the 22d, when 



182 THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

the Fontabelle closely skirted the coast. This is merely a 
surmise, as I had no means of ascertaining if, in fact, the 
"horns" were incandescent; but a similar association be- 
tween summit glows and incandescent knobs had been re- 
marked in the earlier days of the active volcano. 

The wholly accordant observations of Landes, Roux 
and others, which I have elsewhere considered (Chapters 
III, IV and V), leave no room for doubt that the seat of 
activity and destructivity on the 8th of May, and during 
previous days, was the basin of the Etang Sec ; therefore, 
the caldron on whose base is now implanted the great frag- 
mental cone. It is also equally certain that the real open- 
ing of this basin was on April 25, when a heavy ash and 
steam-cloud was seen to issue from it ; but it can hardly be 
doubted that a minor eruptivity, beyond the simple emission 
of sulphurous and aqueous vapors, may have existed before 
this time. Nothing is known of the size or characteristics 
of the cone — if the present cone existed at all at the time — 
when the eruption took place ; and therefore the allocation 
of the destroying blast to a definite point in the basin, 
whether to its floor or to the opening in a rising cone, re- 
mains to a degree speculative in its value. It appears to 
me most probable that the blast issued from the basal floor 
of the basin, rather than from a constructing cone — a view 
which is measurably well sustained by the condition of 
violent, one might truly say paroxysmal, activity which 
this portion of the crater still maintains. I was witness to 
a rare exhibition of a violent eruption from this quarter on 
June 5, and on the following day occurred a still more 



THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 183 

violent eruption, whose characteristics were absolutely par- 
allel with those of the cataclysm of May 8, as observed by 
the officers of the Pouyer- Quertier. The great puffs of yel- 
low and brown-black " cauliflower" cloud are, indeed, much 
more closely associated with the explosions from the floor of 
the crater-basin than they are with the outflows from the 
summit vent ; at least, this has been my observation, ex- 
tended over many days. When directly abreast of the crater 
on August 24, and viewing it from an elevation of from 
thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet, the outbursts were 
remarkably forcible, and left no doubt in my mind that they 
were not secondary in their action — i.e., rising, as some 
have supposed, from accumulated masses or heaps of heated 
cinders, but direct from openings in the floor of the main 
crater. 18 The lower and upper discharges were always 
clearly distinguishable from each other in their fundamental 
characters, and the former were much more violent and 
paroxysmal, and usually much more heavily charged with 
ash. When thrown out in volume and with force they built 
out a landscape of terrible magnificence, the yellow and 
almost black whorls rising like huge cauliflower heads, with 
amazing swiftness, and spreading out far and wide over the 
mountain slope. When the outburst was accompanied with 
much steam, the vertical column frequently expanded out 
into domed and mushroom-shaped masses. The rapid 
transformation of these forms, and the chaotic cloud-world 
that swept round them, were bewildering. While we did 
not have the opportunity to accurately measure the heights 
to which these clouds ascended, I should say, judged by the 



184 THE GEOOKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

eye alone, that they must have at times reached nearly, if 
not quite, two miles. During the eruption of June 5, which 
we witnessed from close range, the ashes must have been 
flung to still greater heights. 

In the heavier outbursts that we witnessed in the latter 
days of August, almost the whole crater-basin was filled by 
the materials of these basal discharges, and the vigor with 
which the great bursts came up, and in independent col- 
umns, makes it appear as if there were not only a single 
opening on the floor of the caldron, but that several such 
may have existed. On August 30, and for two days follow- 
ing, the entire basin of the crater was " smoking" continu- 
ously in one vast united column ; and it was the energy of 
this rapidly rising mass, rasping the surrounding walls of 
the volcano, which was doubtless in great measure respon- 
sible for the terrific noise which the volcano gave out. As 
I have elsewhere stated, this steam-column was found to 
rise from the border of the crater with an initial velocity of 
from one and one-half to three miles per minute ; and it has 
been suggested that the quantity of steam and vapor that 
rose in any one particle of time may have been the equal of 
the full quantity that was being thrown out from all the 
steam-jets of the world collectively, including those of 
steamboats, locomotives and all of the forms of steam- 
engines. After a careful study of the territory that was 
affected and the conditions of the smoke-clouds as they 
issued from the crater-basin — the crowding over of the 
vicious black and ruddy puffs to the side of Morne Rouge 
— I think it not unlikely, despite the apparent contradic- 



THE OEOGBAPHY OF MONT PELEE 185 

tion that is presented by the overtopping summit-vent, that 
the destroying blast of August 30 also issued from the floor 
of the basin, and perhaps from the same opening whence 
issued the destroying cloud of May 8. On the other hand, 
the fact that the destroying blast now for the first time 
swept over the mountain, when the cone reached the level 
of the full summit, naturally suggests an association with 
this structure. 19 

In associating the present activity of Mont Pelee with 
parts of the volcano that were concerned in the eruption 
last preceding this one, we have as a basis for study and 
comparison only the report of the Scientific Commission 
of 1851, MM. Leprieur, Peyraud and Pufz. From this 
report it is made clear that none of the existing vents had 
part in the earlier eruption, which in itself appears to have 
been hardly more than a warning, with a localized area of 
destruction immediately about the explosive points. There 
were at the time of the investigation of the commission 
three active craterlets, two situated at an elevation, as deter- 
mined barometrically, of eight hundred and eighty-three 
metres, and the third, which was seemingly the largest, 
although measuring only one and a half metres across, situ- 
ated some distance farther down the slope. This is thought 
to have been the seat of the ancient Soufriere.* The position 
bore directly east of Precheur, from which it was distant 

* " Mais nous voulions visiter encore un troisieme cratere que nous 
voyions fumer aussi a quelques centaines de metres plus has dans la meme 
ravine, et qu'on nous disait avoir pour siege Vancienne Soufriere." Erup- 
tion du Yolcan de la Montagne Pelee, p. 9. 



186 THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PBLEE 

seven kilometres in a direct line. The vent nearest to Saint 
Pierre was distant ten kilometres from that city. These 
several openings, which were found in a condition of semi- 
activity on August 9, were located in a ravine of the 
Riviere Claire, a northwestern or right-hand tributary to 
the Riviere Blanche, and at positions which can probably 
no longer be identified. The commission did not consider 
them to be active points of the main eruption, but assumed 
for these a considerable number of other craterlets lying in 
an adjacent valley, and at positions whose general or medial 
elevation above the sea is placed at eight hundred and six- 
teen metres. These were found to be all dormant. 

That none of the several points of activity or past- 
activity that are here referred to are in any way identifiable 
with the Etang Sec (the focus of the recent outburst) — a 
correspondence which has generally and not unnaturally 
been assumed — is thus plainly indicated by the geographical 
position outside of the actual basin of the Riviere Blanche, 
and in the further narrative of MM. Leprieur and Peyraud 
(p. 16), which states that these investigators visited the old 
lake-basin for the purpose of making additional observations 
on what was assumed to be another and still more ancient 
crater of the volcano (" Sans visiter r Etang Sec qui passe 
pour un autre eratere plus ancien du volcan"). This is, 
indeed, a very important statement, for it shows the eruptive 
point or points of the volcano to have shifted their positions 
since 1851 towards the side of Saint Pierre. Naturally, 
this condition fastens an added degree of insecurity upon 
the mountain. The lake, instead of being dry (as its name 



THE GEOOKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 187 

signifies — dry tarn), was found to contain considerable 
water, the quantity of which was estimated to be about five 
times that contained in the summit lake (the Lac des 
Palmistes : " remplie au jour ou Us le visitaient par une 
masse oVeau considerable et a leur estime cinq fois plus 
grande que dans le lac superieur," page 16), an overcharge 
which the guides attributed to an unusual fall of rain during 
the past winter season. The elevation of the lake was 
determined barometrically to be nine hundred and twenty- 
one metres (three thousand and twenty-five feet), corres- 
ponding closely with the level of the most elevated of the 
craterlets which had been located in the more distant ravine 
(" Ainsi cet etang-sec se trouve presque a la meme elevation 
que les bouches superieures du volcan placees dans une ravine 
plus eloignee. Rien d'ailleurs rietait change dans ces lieux 
au dire des guides, on ne remarqua nifente, ni eboulement"). 
The belief that Mont Pelee has had but a single erup- 
tion recorded in its history prior to the one of May, 1902, 
a supposition that is universally held in Martinique, is erro- 
neous, the volcano having passed through a moderate parox- 
ysm on January 22, 1762. A fairly extended account of 
this eruption is published in the Journal des Mines, of Paris 
(Vol. Ill (1796), pp. 58-59 of Part xviii), as an annotation 
to Dupuget's paper: " Coup-cV 'ceil rapide sur la Physique gen- 
erate et la Mineralogie des Antilles^ and appears from the 
notes of an eye-witness, Aquart, communicated to M. Du- 
puget. Earthquakes and the emission of sulphurous odors 
and vapors in considerable quantity were an accompaniment 
of this eruption, whose disturbing seat was in a number of 



188 THE GEOGKAPHY OF MONT PELEE 

craterlets situated at an elevation of about five hundred 
toises (three thousand feet — consequently, closely corre- 
sponding with the altitudinal position of some of the vents 
of the later eruptions). Much vegetation was burned or 
singed, and a number of opossums were killed. It is said 
that the earth was riddled with holes, and many sulphur 
aspirators were opened. At a lower level of some five hun- 
dred to six hundred paces distance there was a flow of hot 
black water (mud ?). The account concludes with the sig- 
nificant statement : " This ancient eruption of Mont Pelee 
seems to have had its entire effect on the western side 
[of the volcano] . That quarter is completely overturned 
[wrecked] . . . whereas on the side opposite the surface is 
less torn." * 

There can be little doubt that this earliest recorded erup- 
tion of Pelee was from a part of the mountain not far re- 
moved from the position of the 1851 eruption, if, indeed, it 
was not absolutely coincident with it. The general charac- 
teristics of the two eruptions appear to have been identical. 

* " IS explosion ancienne de la Montague Pelee par ait avoir porte 
tout son effort du cote de Touest. Cette partie est entierement bouleversee. 
. . . tandis que du cote oppose le terrain est moins brise." P. 59. The 
year of this eruption is more generally given 1792, but there can 
be no question that the event took place at an earlier day, as the 
facts were communicated to Dupuget while he was on the island, 
and his voyage was made in 1784-1786. This relation is well set 
forth by Professor Mercalli in the Atti delta Societd Italiana di Scienze 
Naturali of Milan, XLI, p. 313, 1902. 



o 
& o 



2 2 

O 30 

a m 




XII 

PfiRE MARY, CURE OF MORNE ROUGE 

On June 2, following our second ascent of Mont Pelee, 
Mr. Leadbeater and I made our pilgrimage to Morne Rouge, 
where the faithful Cure, Pere Mary, had done so much to 
relieve the anxieties of his little flock, and to serve them 
with the necessaries of life. There were still four hundred 
remaining in the beautiful mountain village, which before 
had counted nearly four thousand inhabitants, and for these 
food had to be provided. We took with us letters that were 
thought to help the Father in his good work, and which 
conveyed to him blessings for the work that had already 
been accomplished. It was no easy task to remain for 
weeks at this post on the hillsides, directly facing Mont 
Pelee, and not farther removed from it than by about two 
miles. The forest-land about had been broken and singed, 
and in his own little town the gardens showed where ashes 
and cinders had fallen. The smoke of Pelee towered up to 
mountain heights, and covered with shadow the belfry of 
the beautiful church which was the heart of Pere Mary. 
The volcano's thunders rolled and broke, and bright sparks 
showered into the sky the fire of the raging earth ; but the 
good priest remained, unmoved by the dangers that sur- 
rounded him. From his upper world lie had looked down 
upon fair Saint Pierre on the morning of its destruction, and 

189 



190 PEBE MAEY, CUBE OF MOBNE BOUGE 

had seen the black cloud roll out from the volcano, and cast 
its death-mantle over the doomed city. He knew better 
than others what was the veiled language of the burning 
mountain, but to him this language stirred only sympathy 
to the afflicted, and a heart to do good to all. Every day 
hundreds came to him to ask and to be given, and every 
night his fervent prayers asked that a deliverance be 
granted them, for there was little of food remaining. For 
many days one could see nearly to the end, and what was 
left came out in pitiful morsels. 

The aged Father, who was clad in his cassock when we 
arrived, grasped us warmly by the hand and bade us wel- 
come in the shelter of his plainly-boarded presbytery. He 
read through the letters that we had brought for him, and 
again gently welcoming us, invited us to break bread over a 
bottle of wine. " This is the last bottle," he said, " but, 
oh ! what matters that, we are nearly to the end of our 
bread and meat. God be merciful !" With tears in his 
eyes he turned to us and bade us partake. It was with 
much difficulty that I could force myself to join in the light 
repast, for it seemed like stealing the life-food from many, 
but Pere Mary insisted. Fortunately, we had brought our 
own lunch, aud were thus able to leave on the table a fair 
compensation for what we ate. A large part of the popula- 
tion of Morne Rouge had already for days been living on 
fruit and biscuits, and a very little of that ; and it was evi- 
dent that, unless more relief came in and at an early day, 
starvation would be staring the poor people in the face. 
We promised the Cure that we would try to expedite the 



PEEE MAEY, CUEE OF MOENE EOUGE 191 

transmission of relief from Fort-de-France, and at that he 
felt happy. 

After attending to the wants of some who had come to 
him for assistance and advice, he led me through his church, 
and up into the belfry portico, where he explained the 
country at large and the part which the volcano had taken 




ON THE ROAD TO MORNE ROUGE 



in destroying it. It was a truly beautiful landscape, with 
its rolling woodland, its scattered habitations and thatched 
cottages, its gardens of palm and banana ; but it was easy 
to see how much had been lost through the cindering of the 
vegetation. Pere Mary directed my attention to a change 
of contour in the upper part of Mont Pelee, where three 



192 PERE MAEY, CURE OF MORKE ROUGE 

tooth-like prominences showed a saw-edge rising over the 
slope that looked southward from the summit. These were 
not in existence before the fatal eruption, nor did they be- 
come visible till many days afterwards. They were white, 
and looked as though they had been burned out, but at 
night-time they shone out with red fire, and made bril- 
liantly luminant the crown of the volcano. With little 
doubt these points of rock were the protuberances that we 
had seen rising out from the crater at the time that we 
made the second ascent (June 1). 

The site of Morne Rouge, occupying the crest of the 
long ridge which unites Mont Pelee with the contreforts of 
the Pitons de Carbet, and with the circling heights of the 
Morne Yert back of it and the projecting knob of the 
Calebasse on the opposite side, is perhaps the loveliest in 
the entire island of Martinique. From it the eye surveys 
nearly all the forms of Martinique landscape — not crowded 
together as to harass the mind, but opened out into charm- 
ing vistas of receding lowland and gently undulating moun- 
tain slopes — and gathers in the more distant waters of the 
Atlantic with those of the blue Caribbean Sea. Northward 
lie the forested gardens and orchards of Ajoupa-Bouillon, 
and southward the equally verdant slopes of Fonds-Saint- 
Denis, the Reduits and Mont Parnasse. The city itself 
had in a way been one of opulence, for many of the 
wealthier inhabitants of Saint Pierre sought here, at an 
elevation of fourteen hundred feet, the cooling breezes of 
summer, and the benefits of a healthy, even if somewhat 
humid, climate — a relief from the oppressive heat of the 



PEEE MAKY, CUKE OF MOENE EOUGE 193 

western lowland. At the time of our visit it presented a 
largely desolated appearance, most of the houses being 
closed and giving no signs of the living. The families 
that remained were unsettled and weary, undecided whether 
to remain longer or to seek shelter elsewhere. Knowing 
that we had been to the summit of the volcano, old and 
youDg came to their garden-fences to gather from us such 
information as might tend to determine them in their 
course. " Was Pelee still active ?" " Was it still to be 
feared ?" " Can we remain, or must we go ?" — these were 
the interrogatories that were put to us by people who were 
sad of heart and trembling for that which the morrow 
might bring. I gave them such consoling words as the 
conditions seemed to warrant, — alas ! they were not many, 
— and they seemed pleased with this paltry relief. One old 
man took my hand and pressed it gently to his lips, then, 
turning to his family, said in low and sad words, " Heaven 
be praised, we are still living." A bright boy of about 
sixteen, who met us on the road near Ajoupa-Bouillon, 
addressed me in English, and begged that I inform him for 
the comfort of his aged and infirm mother. I asked him 
for his residence, which was pointed out near by, and also 
where he had acquired his mastery of the foreign tongue. 
He replied, in the Lycee of Saint Pierre. 

The road by which we had come from Vive to Morne 
Rouge is one of the best in the island. It follows for some 
distance the main Capot, and enters well into the heart of 
the mountain country. Along it the traveller is treated to 
an enchanting display of tropical vegetation of palms, tree- 

13 



194 PERE MARY, CURE OF MORNE ROUGE 

ferns and bamboos, of heliconias, melastomes and rubber- 
trees, — of giant foresters, cased in cables and creepers, 
holding out their naked branches as if asking for food and 
light ; of star-massed epiphytes and orchids, and great 
bursts of scarlet and blue blossoms. We follow along deep 
barrancas musical with their tumbling waters, and shrouded 
beneath an almost impenetrable maze of foliage. The 
silence of the woodland was most impressive. A few 
lizards here and there slid along the tree-trunks, and occa- 
sional blackbirds hurried across the open, but there was no 
song or voice of any kind. The world of life was hushed 
in the silence of the dreary solitude. A stray land-crab 
edged its way across the open road to clear our path, but of 
the once dreaded fer-de-lance we saw nothing. 

How little did we think at the time of this first visit to 
Morne Rouge that in a few short weeks the town would 
cease to exist, and that with it would pass the good Father, 
whose ennobling life, consecrated to charity and humanity, 
had set an example to be followed by the world. At nine 
o'clock, or a few minutes after nine, of the evening of Au- 
gust 30 a tornadic blast, similar to that which had destroyed 
Saint Pierre, swept over the crest of Pelee, and in hardly 
more than a minute, perhaps even in less time, Morne 
Rouge was swept from existence and burning. I was at the 
time at the Habitation Leyritz, on the northeastern foot of 
the mountain, about five miles distant, watching the extra- 
ordinary electric display immediately overhead. A light 
shower of lapilli and ashes was falling, but not sufficiently 
to obscure the night. The volcano continued roaring as it 



PERE MARY, CURE OF MORNE ROUGE 195 

had done during the whole of the clay, and most of the day 
previous, but there were no distinctive detonations audible. 
Of a sudden, a great red glow shot high into the sky and 
told that something had happened. Morne Rouge had been 
shattered, and much of what remained was burning. 

When the blast first swept furiously through the town 
Pere Mary was in the presbytery, and it was only when this 
home was aflame and no longer habitable did he seek the 
shelter of the adjoining church. It was while going the 
few paces from the one building to the other that he was 
stricken — burned like the other poor creatures who were 
either dead or dying. With a strong effort Pere Mary suc- 
ceeded in dragging himself into his dear sanctum, where 
he was found the following morning, suffering in agony, yet 
sufficiently composed to ask after the welfare of his little 
flock. Nearly or quite twelve hundred of these had already 
perished. A number of small houses and the church were 
what remained intact of Morne Rouge. The wounded Cu- 
rate was removed to Fonds- Saint-Denis and thence to Fort- 
de-France, where, at eleven o'clock on Monday morning, 
September 1, he expired. On the following day Vicar- 
General Parel delivered the funeral address, and the capital 
of Martinique paid homage to the man whose name was in 
the future to be a part of its history. 

The unwavering heroism which bore Pere Mary to his 
life-saving task carried with it no reward beyond that which 
is reaped from a consciousness of having done the highest 
work of man. But for his presence, and his kindly and 
soothing words, serious panics would have repeatedly broken 



196 PEEE MABY, CUEE OF MOENE EOUGE 

out in the northern part of the island, for it was not Morne 
Rouge alone that his voice touched, but other settlements 
were guided by it in their thoughts and action. " He very 
courageously remains practically alone in Morne Rouge," 
writes Vicar-General Parel to the Bishop of the diocese, 
"beneath the jaws of the monster and under the guidance 
of Notre Dame de la Delivrande. I wrote to congratulate 
him, but there was no longer a postal connection. If he 
succumbed, he will only learn in heaven that we admire 
him." 



XIII 
CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 

On the morning of June 6, when events had shaped 
themselves to a fairly peaceful turn, Fort-de-France was 
again thrown into panic by the cries of " le volcan ! le 
volcan /" Men and women, with tiny children clinging to 
them and cursing the day that brought them misery, were 
running wildly about, homeward or outward, according to 
the degree of fear that had taken possession of their minds. 
Others of more mature thought were anxiously watching 
from street corners, while not a few were invoking the 
aid of heaven through prayer and lamentation. That 
which had given cause for this excitement was a new 
and vigorous outbreak of Mont Pelee. Rushing from the 
hotel to the street, I observed the sky darkened by a vast 
cloud that was drawing over it. It advanced with bewilder- 
ing velocity, spreading out like a giant fan as it propelled 
its way southward, and in a few seconds the whole of Fort- 
de-France, and all of the island that lay beyond, were in 
shadow. The twilight of an eclipse had settled over us. 
The spectacle of this advancing ash-cloud, like a huge oc- 
topus overspreading everything, was supremely beautiful, 
almost overwhelming, and for a moment we were lost to the 
portentous secret that it carried. The gaze of everyone 
was directed upward — watching, hoping, fearing. The end 
appeared to have arrived for some. The cloud came in 

197 



198 CLOUDS OP PASSAGE 

silence, and it followed its course in the same way. Except 
where illumined by the sun into a dazzling white border, 
its color was a cold and forbidding gray-black. 

What had happened ? was the question that was thought 
and asked by everyone. So large an ash-cloud had not 
been known since the fatal 8th of May, and many seemed 
to think that not even then was there anything comparable. 
I roughly estimated the height of its course to be not less 
than five miles above us, and it may have been more. The 
normal air-clouds were then swiftly flying in the opposite 
direction, heading for the volcano, and giving the appear- 
ance of being attracted by it. Their plane was far below 
that of the clouds reaching over them. An ashen pallor 
hung over the capital for five hours after which the city 
again emerged into a dim sunlight. 

Having acquired some local reputation as a vulcanolo- 
gist through my ascents of Mont Pelee, I was besieged for 
an " opinion" on this new manifestation of the volcano's 
activity, and the probabilities or possibilities that were to 
follow as a consequence. Many poor souls had led them- 
selves to believe that the day of judgment had finally 
arrived, or was at least in sight. Others, more moderate 
in their measure of the impending catastrophe; only in- 
quired if there still remained time to pack and leave. I 
made an effort, and perhaps with some success, to allay 
their fears by unconcernedly pointing my camera to the 
sky, but the collecting crowd became uncomfortably large, 
and I moved on. At this time the cry came along that the 
sea was rising, and this gave cause for additional alarm. 



CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 199 

A similar occurrence was remembered as part of the phe- 
nomena of May 8, and it was thought that possibly that 
event had been repeated. The ocean-level had, in truth, 
risen three feet, and the city could spare but little more. 
Fortunately there were no bad results following this rise, 
and the waters fell just as rapidly as they had come. The 
day was almost exactly one month after the destruction of 
Saint Pierre, and many wise people had prophesied that a 
second destruction, similar to the first one, would take place 
at this time. Here was the confirmation. 

Later in the day, as the gray tint of the city wore off, 
the people regained part of their confidence and once more 
settled down to the quiet of their normal existence. Only 
on the ocean-front were crowds still assembled, looking at 
the ashen cloud as it floated off to St. Lucia, and at the 
peculiarly colored steel-blue sea that lay beneath it. To- 
wards evening, by invitation of one of the officers of the 
French Cable Company, I visited the cable-ship Pouyer- 
Quertier, which had again been out grappling for the lost 
cable. The commander, Captain Thirion, kindly supplied 
me with some of the details of the explosion, which were 
subsequently embodied in an official report, and with 
a number of the larger fragments of pumice with which 
the vessel had been bombarded. The decks were still 
coated with ash, although in no great quantity. At ten 
o'clock, when the activity of Pelee became specially notice- 
able, the Pouyer-Quertier was out six miles frdm land, a 
little to the north of Saint Pierre. At that time a lofty 
ash-cloud was seen to issue from the summit crater, and 



200 CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 

almost simultaneously a thick black cloud rolled down 
the valley of the Riviere Blanche and forced its way to 
the sea. 

The aspect and manner of the volcano were precisely 
what had been noted on May 8. The black cloud kept 
close to the surface of the earth, rolling vertically, and 
descending with a velocity which, if not as great as that of 
the cloud of May 8, was swift enough. It made a course 
of five miles over the sea, and accomplished its full flight 
of seven miles in twenty minutes. Its dissolution on the 
surface of the sea appears to have been accomplished with- 
out explosion or ignition of any kind. The Pouyer-Quer- 
tier had by this time sought safety in flight, for it had been 
approached to within a mile by the threatening cloud, and 
the fall of cinders and ash was heavy. ; 

The eruption was noted by a slight barometric fall, but 
it may be that the fluctuation of the recording needle was 
the result of a jar or seismic movement, rather than of a 
true atmospheric displacement. The fluctuation was four 
millimetres. The following is the official account (transla- 
tion) of the eruption as it was posted in the cable office of 
Fort-de-France on the following day : 

Fort-de-France, 7th. — During the eruption which occurred yes- 
terday morning the French Cable Company's repairing steamer 
Pouyer-Quertier was five miles off the mouth of the river Blanche 
grappling for the cable. At the moment a thick cloud appeared 
unfolding itself vertically and horizontally at the same time. This 
cloudy mass was as large as the one observed during the eruption on 
the 8th ultimo. Lightning was to be seen constantly flashing from 



CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 201 

the sea towards the sky. The lower part of the cloud travelled very 
rapidly towards the southwest. In less than twenty minutes it had 
travelled seven miles ; then the volumes became larger and the sky 
darkened all over. A strong smell of sulphur spread while a thick 
shower of stones and mud fell on the Pouyer-Quertier. During this 
phenomenon the barometer fell suddenly from 765 to 761.5 and then 
rose to 766. It was with great difficulty that the Pouyer-Quertier suc- 
ceeded in escaping from the danger of asphyxia and fire. 

The record of the Pouyer-Quertier made it clear that 
the explosion of the morning was a serious affair, the full 
measure of which could uot be had from a study of the 
magnificent ash-cloud alone. On the day preceding the 
occurrence we were on a tour of survey along the northern 
coast of the island, and had then an opportunity to study a 
new phase of the volcano's activity. We had chartered a 
small steamer, the Pubis, to take us to Grande-Riviere and 
Macouba, and on our return landed in front of the great 
mud-flow which had overwhelmed the Usine Guerin and 
now lay like a huge glacial tongue between the Rivieres 
Blanche and Seche. At the point where we landed the 
flow had been fissured out by the sea, and here, as at several 
other points, gave out strong jets of steam, with a feebly 
sulphurous odor. I coaxed some of these with a stick, but 
found them harmless. The whole mud-flat was still densely 
steamed within, but the surface had hardened and largely 
crumbled into dust, and gave out but little gaseous vapor. 
We followed in the line of the crater, keeping close to the 
course of the Riviere Blanche for about three-quarters of 
a mile, when the conditions of the weather became such 



202 CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 

that it was thought prudent to return. Our observations, 
although we obtained a clearer view of the upper gorge 
of the Riviere Blanche than we had had up to that time, 
revealed little of consequence. We found the Riviere 
Blanche muddy and turbulent, but not hot, and steam was 
issuing from it only where heated parts of the bed or 
banks were newly exposed by undercutting, and permitted 
of the rapid formation or evolution of vapor. At such 
points great puffs were being forcibly blown off, and their 
periodicity in action easily suggested the presence of true 
fumaroles. 

We had leisurely made the descent of the mud-flat and 
barely began to pull our dinkey from the shore, when the 
cry went up, " look at the volcano !" We turned our eyes 
in the direction of Pelee, and the sight that met them was 
truly terrifying. The crater, whose peaceful method had 
lured us to a farther point than was perhaps entirely safe, 
had suddenly broken into eruption, and was hurling wild 
sheets of yellow cloud to the northward. They came roll- 
ing and puffing with great fury, and in an instant almost 
the whole northern face of the mountain was in turmoil. 
Over every slope the smoke was shifting and rising, here 
and there in sweeping threads, as if tossed from a prairie 
fire, elsewhere twirling itself into lofty columns and pyra- 
mids or mushroom caps — rolling black and yellow with 
the angry ashes that were being carried out by them. 
Five minutes before we had been walking about in the sun- 
shine of this same mountain slope, not fearing that any- 
thing could disturb our mission; and now the mountain 



CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 203 

was lashed in fury, and buried in the dark shadows which 
its new life had called forth. The scene was an extra- 
ordinary one, and one that was made doubly impressive by 
the rapidity with which it was brought about. 

Turning our eyes to the channel of the Riviere Blanche, 
we found the stream a seething mass of chocolate and black 
mud. It came down dancing and boiling, a steaming cata- 
ract that had been shot to the sea. In hardly more or less 
than three minutes, it had leaped its two miles from the 
crater to the sea, which it entered with what seemed to be a 
vertical wall. Its surface rose and fell in angry billows, and 
great vertical jets were tumbled out of it like fairy geysers. 
We could hardly convince ourselves that this raging and 
burning mass, roaring in its fury, and turning the sea into 
angry eddies, could be the same water which we had so 
leisurely followed for three-quarters of a mile on a bank that 
was now no longer visible. 

I think it beyond question that the increased volume 
and change in the character of the water of the Riviere 
Blanche were directly the result of a discharge of mud or 
water from the volcano. There was no rain of consequence 
that could have been thought to be responsible for this 
condition, nor was the volcano itself capped with any 
particularly heavy resting cloud, a strong southerly wind 
dressing the mountain to the north. We found later in 
the day that the Riviere Seche was also running with hot 
mud. 

The eruption which came thus suddenly was evidently 
the prelude to that of the day following, when certain feat- 



204 CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 

ures, like that of the great rolling black cloud, were pre- 
sented which were not developed in the earlier affair. It 
was a magnificent demonstration of the power that remained 
with Mont Pelee, and its effect was not calculated to give 
comfort to those who had persuaded themselves, contrary 
perhaps to their own feelings, to believe that there was 
nothing more to fear from the volcano. But Martinique 
had been favored this time. The black cloud, which had 
merely left a shadow to follow its swift flight across the 
island, dropped its ashes on St. Lucia, and veiled its land- 
scape with the darkness of night. At one o'clock in the 
afternoon the royal mail steamer entered the port of Cas- 
tries with its search-lights directing the course. 

Before making this survey of the Riviere Blanche flow 
we had landed at Precheur, the town which had first felt 
the overpowering gloom of the impending catastrophe of 
May 8, and whose heart had been eaten out by torrents of 
rock and boulder. For several days before the destruction 
of Saint Pierre many of its inhabitants had fled thither, 
thinking to secure a safer refuge in the larger city. Its own 
atmosphere had been blacked with the falling ashes, and 
made poisonous with the vapor of sulphur. The Precheur 
Biver had risen over its banks, swept off scores of habita- 
tions, and deluged the city with acres of boulders. The 
settlement practically ceased to exist. Most of the destruc- 
tion had, indeed, been accomplished before the event which 
wrecked the city that was sending out aid. 

The following correspondence published as a letter from 
M. Duno-Emile Josse, and appearing in the issue of Les 





Photo. Heilprin 



A DELUGE OF BOULDERS 
Basse-Pointe, May 29, 1902 



CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 205 

Colonies for April 26, gives a vivid picture of the first 
coming of the storm : 

Grand-Ponds (Precheur), April 25, 1902. 
The Editor of Les Colonies, — 

Permit me to ask a column of your esteemed journal in which 
to recite to the public a curious phenomenon which has surprised the 
inhabitants of our quarter of Mont Pelee. 

Since more than three months we have felt the odor of sulphur 
which has caused considerable disquietude with the inhabitants, and 
finally led to the recognition that it came from the Soufriere. It 
increased steadily in force and quantity, and threw us into great fear, 
as the older inhabitants well recalled the Soufriere in the eruption of 
1852 [1851]. In fact, at about eight o'clock of Wednesday morning, 
April 23, the earth trembled with a sufficiently severe shock. Yester- 
day, the 25th, at about the same time, it was noted that the atmos- 
phere was darkening, and almost immediately it turned as if into an 
eclipse of the sun, accompanied by a deep growling (grondement). . . . 
All of a sudden, a loud detonation, like the firing of a cannon, was 
heard ; the sky appeared to be in places on fire, and there was a 
continuous fall of fine and white ashes which the volcano was vomit- 
ing out, and which spread more particularly over the Grande-Savane, 
Grand-Fonds, Bois-Lezard, and Gros-Morne. These ashes were so 
abundant that at two metres distance people were unable to dis- 
tinguish one another. 

The affrighted inhabitants, snatching with them their children 
and valuables, ran bewildered, as if stricken with blindness, to the 
right and to the left, returning to their houses, crying, praying, and 
at the same time asking assistance from near neighbors, who, them- 
selves paralyzed by fear, were unable to respond to the appeals of 
their co-citizens. This condition remained for over an hour before a 
calm again settled. The rain of ashes lasted for about two hours. 

Unfortunately [in an effort to reach the Soufriere] as we came 
within a certain distance of it, we were obliged to return. We were 



206 CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 

in face of a steam-cloud that could be likened to that of several high- 
pressure furnaces [hauts fourneaux] united, and which was in part 
white, in other parts black. 

Duno-Emile Josse. 

Our visit to Precheur on June 5 was to a deserted- 
settlement. A handful of people remained, to guard and 
watch over the few houses that persisted along the ocean 
front, away from the distributing course of the Riviere. 
Mud and boulders lay three and four feet deep over the 
floors of habitations that still carried their walls and roofs, 
or clustered about tree-trunks and bushes that formed part 
of the square and of the savane. The church rests with 
only its half on solid ground. We went to the old bed of 
the Precheur, and found its course occupied by a huge 
tongue of land packed on its surface with a wilderness of 
giant rock-boulders. The sight was an astonishing one. 
Far up in the line of the former meadows were acres upon 
acres of strewn rock, packed like cobble-stones in a street- 
paving. One could say that nearly all the boulders were 
large — many of them five feet and considerably more in 
greatest diameter, others measuring eight and ten feet. I 
observed several that were twelve feet in length. With 
few exceptions, all had rounded contours, a character im- 
pressed upon them by ancient erosions ; and the greater 
number were encased in a heavy coating of dried mud, two 
or three inches in thickness. The material was chiefly 
andesite and basalt or diorite. 

We know that this rock avalanche was brought down 
by the stream from the flank of the volcano, but from what 



CLOUDS OF PASSAGE 207 

precise form of deposit ? Before this I had been at Basse- 
Pointe and noted nearly the same conditions — a town, the 
greater part of which had been annihilated by its inun- 
dating torrent of boulders ; and later, on August 27, I 
studied the effects of the flood-waters of the Falaise, im- 
mediately above the confluence of that stream with the 
Capot. In a flow of hardly three miles, possibly consider- 
ably less, the stream had brought down a veritable wilder- 
ness of giant rounded and planed boulders. I determined 
the position of high-flood to have been thirty-five feet or 
more above the normal level of the stream. A large 
boulder was at this time still lodged in the crown of a tree 
standing at the mouth of the Capot. A broad flood-plain 
had been excavated since my earlier visit, and great em- 
bankments were built up to passing levels of the water. 
A truly wonderful side-piece to the phenomena of Pelee ! 



XIV 
A SECOND VISIT TO MARTINIQUE 

I visited Martinique for the second time in the latter 
days of August, and found a greatly improved local condi- 
tion then existing. The large number of refugees who had 
been quartered and fed in Fort-de-France were back in 
their homes in Morne Rouge, Ajoupa-Bouillon, Grande- 
Riviere and Macouba, and but a lingering few remained 
behind. The repatriation of the deserted country had been 
ordered by the government, and the government had been 
advised by a scientific commission. It is true that a violent 
eruption of Pelee had taken place as late as July 9, but 
this had now been passed by more than a month, and even 
at the time of its coming it brought little anxiety to the 
inhabitants. Those who before had been most frightened 
were eloquent in their description of the wonderful electric 
displays, while the phenomena of eruptions generally were 
being discussed with absolute sang-froid and had come to 
be regarded by many as curiosities of nature, to be studied 
and admired, rather than of necessity to be feared. 

The streets had much life returned to them, the service 
in the hotels had been improved, and nearly all the visiting 
foreigners had left for distant shores. A new Governor had 
been installed in office, and the Government House was 
busy with officials, couriers and attendants of all kinds. A 
new journal, borrowing the name of La Colonie from its 

208 



A SECOND VISIT TO MARTINIQUE 209 

unfortunate predecessor in Saint Pierre, Les Colonies, and 
appearing three or four times a week, had been established. 

The battle of politics was again being hotly waged, and 
with the same intensity and personal feeling as at the time 
of the destruction of Saint Pierre. It seemed as if the 
lesson of the volcano had already been entirely forgotten. 

I took my quarters, as before, at the Hotel Ivanes, over- 
looking the Savane. Great changes had been reported from 
Saint Pierre. The streets were represented to be largely 
filled up with ash and lapilli, and the walls hardly recog- 
nizable, having rotted and fallen. Going out the following 
day, I did not find the change nearly so marked as it had 
been reported, though a few of the old landmarks were with 
difficulty recognizable. Lapilli and ash had fallen in con- 
siderable quantity, so that many of the older rubble-heaps 
were masked, and the streets levelled out into passable road- 
ways. The Rue Victor Hugo was open to wagons over 
part of its course and was being travelled by a cart at the 
time of my visit. The ash-covering had deepened in places 
to four and five feet, and the surface was almost everywhere 
made up of loosely aggregated lapilli. 

Rains, excavations and lootings had exposed many ob- 
jects that had before been buried, and skeletons, or parts 
of skeletons, were freely lying about. We found many 
skulls scattered over the Place Bertin and in the avenues 
leading out from that section of the city. The northern 
part of the Centre or Mouillage was heavily cloaked in ash. 
At a few places some few signs of a systematic excava- 
tion after treasure were noticeable, but in general the aspect 

14 



210 A SECOND VISIT TO MAETINIQUB 

of the destroyed city was the same as when I had left it, 
except that here and there patches of green were beginning 
to appear, and clumps of new banana-trees and cane, im- 
planted upon the old gardens or the decay of roof-tops, had 
risen to three and four feet, and other bits of vegetation 
were noticed elsewhere. It was evident that, left to itself, 
the desert would soon be covered by tropical vegetation. I 
do not think it can be disputed, despite some seemingly con- 
tradictory analyses that have been made or reported, that 
the ash contains much fertilizing principle, and was wholly 
to the advantage of vegetable growth. In the interior of the 
island we found the vegetation surpassingly rich and ver- 
dant, and this was particularly noticeable in the districts of 
ash-fall, so much so as to attract the general attention of 
the cane-growers. On the lower flanks of Pelee itself the 
cindered and burnt forest was breaking out into brilliant 
green. 

On Sunday, August 24, Fort-de-France had its first 
earthquake. It came at nine-twenty in the morning and 
caused considerable consternation. The city had thus far 
been free from this form of disturbance, and not even on 
the fatal 8th of May did it experience a shock. This first 
manifestation of seismic activity very properly brought a 
new fear to the inhabitants and for a moment placed politics 
in the background. Clocks had stopped, tables had tilted, 
and doors had opened ; crockery here and there fell from 
shelving, and ceilings swayed as if suspended in free air. 
The evidence pointed to a markedly horizontal concussion, 
but no one seemed able to distinctly locate the quarter of 



A SECOND VISIT TO MAETINIQUE 211 

first impact. The Meteorological Observatory of Fort-de- 
France registered the oscillations as northwest to southeast, 
with a total duration of twenty seconds. I was at the time 
in Carbet, just south of Saint Pierre, and experienced 
nothing ; and so far as I know, no one in Carbet felt more 
or knew until long afterwards that an earthquake had taken 
place. Whether this earthquake was in any way associated 
with the renewed activity of Mont Pelee, which developed 
shortly after, can hardly be told, although this condition 
of dependence naturally suggests itself. The weather at 
the time of the occurrence was superb, and the barometer 
indicated no disturbance. 

I had with me on this day a small party assisting in the 
study of the southwestern slope of Pelee. My purpose was 
to determine accurately the positions of the parts of the 
mountain as they had been known before the May cata- 
clysm, and to follow the development of the newly-formed 
fragmental cone, which had grown to prodigious dimensions. 
For the accomplishment of this purpose I had planned an 
ascent quite to the summit of the volcano, but we were 
baffled by the deep gorge of the Riviere Seche, which had 
opened considerably, and whose nearly vertical sides seemed 
to present an impassable barrier. Our course was over the 
gentle ash-slope that forms the water-parting between the 
Rivieres Seche and Des Peres, and continues in line with 
the southeastern wall of the crater. Much new vegetation 
had grown out from it. 

We reached at our farthest point an elevation of ap- 
proximately sixteen hundred feet, or two hundred feet 



212 A SECOND VISIT TO MAETLNTQUE 

above the ridge-line of Morne Rouge. The crater, whose 
lower lip was still six hundred or seven hundred feet above 
us, opened out in our direction, and gave us a splendid 
opportunity to observe the contours and development of the 
active cone that was implanted upon its basal floor. The 
summit of this cone, which was smoking in the fashion of a 
factory or locomotive chimney, rose apparently fully one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the finger- 
pinnacle of the Ti-Bolhommes, and completely obscured, 
from our side, the Morne de La Croix. I should say that 
it rose at the time to the full height of the mountain. 
Great boulders were racing down its slope, and trailing 
clouds of ash-dust after them, but there were no continuous 
outflows, whether of mud or lava. 

The volcano was not particularly active when we came 
to our final point, although puffs of steam were issuing 
freely from the walls of the cone. No eruption was notice- 
able coming from the floor of the crater. Before an hour 
had passed, however, angry ash-clouds began to blow up 
from below, following one another in rapid succession, and 
all passing off northwestward with the wind. For two 
hours or more they continued to rise, steadily increasing in 
intensity, and unfolding in beautiful, cauliflower masses. 
They shot out from the crater at moderately low angles, but 
with great force, and before long the summit of the moun- 
tain, northward of where we stood, was shrouded in a 
chaotic mass of floating and shifting vapor. The quantity 
of ash carried was very large, and the clouds were forbid- 
dingly dark in color — red, brown and almost black. At 



A SECOND VISIT TO MAETINIQUE 213 

this time the summit vent was also blowing up with vigor 
and it gave us a splendid opportunity to observe the courses 
of the two forms of eruption, whose relations have already 
been discussed in an earlier chapter. 

The illustrations which follow, reproductions from a 
series of photographs which were taken at intervals of a 
minute and les£, vividly portray the developing eruption — 
perhaps more rapidly and consecutively than has ever be- 
fore been possible for an eruption of magnitude. The 
scene of awe-inspiring grandeur which they depict is in- 
describable. 

Failing to reach the summit of the volcano from the 
side of Saint Pierre, I again moved over to the northeast, 
the side whence the earlier ascents were made, and once 
more imposed myself upon the open-hearted hospitality of 
our friends of Assier and Vive. 

The wheels of the usines were again working, and the 
great high chimneys were proudly curling their smoke over 
the verdant greens of meadow-land and cane. The day 
after my arrival, I went over with the representing Maire 
of Ajoupa-Bouillon, M. Kloss, to inspect the large cacao 
estates of that district, and to ascertain, if possible, the 
nature of the so-called Trianon crater in the Falaise, a 
short distance beyond, at the foot of Mont Calebasse. 
Much has been written about this crater and its explo- 
sions. I had described it also,* and characterized the 
eruptions coming from it as being of the true crateral type. 

* McClure's Magazine, August, 1902. 



214 A SECOND YISIT TO MAETINIQUB 

When my observations were made I was not near enough to 
clearly ascertain its features, and relied for my determination 
largely upon the observations of others, those who had been 
quite up to it, or, at least, looked in. A closer examination 
of the gorge at a time when it was entirely free from vapor, 
and with the assistance of one who well knew its topo- 
graphic features before the great eruption, leads me very 
strongly to doubt the crateral origin of the outbursts — a 
doubt which has already been expressed by Lacroix and 
others. Most of the topography of the gorge as it now 
exists I am positively assured existed long before May 8, 
and some or all of the forbidding caldron-like holes at the 
head of the cirque are recognized as part of the old features. 
While it is not impossible that minor craterlets may have 
existed in the upper gorge of the Falaise, just as they did 
in the side ravine of the Riviere Claire in August, 1851, I 
prefer to believe that the explosions that I and others 
noticed as coming from the gorge, and which I have 
likened to puffs from locomotive chimneys, were due to a 
secondary forcing of steam from accumulated masses of hot 
ashes and cinders to which surface water in some way or 
another had gained access. At any rate, it is a very sus- 
picious circumstance that during the active period of the 
volcano in the latter part of August and early September 
the Falaise should have remained perfectly quiet, whereas 
the Precheur and the Grande Riviere, over whose bed lapilli 
and much hot ash had been deposited, were running wildly 
with steam. 

Immediately after my return from the Trianon I 



A SECOND VISIT TO MAETINIQUB 215 

planned for the ascent of Pelee, which was accomplished 
on the 30th (August), on the evening of which day the 
volcano broke into a paroxysm of wrath, and destroyed 
much of the beautiful country which I had first travelled 
over. Little did we imagine, as we wandered through the 
dense thicket of forty thousand cacao plants, as we brushed 
aside the hanging vines and creepers of the gorge of the 
Little Capot, that before four days were to pass a gray 
desolation would again sweep over the landscape — that the 
harvest of death would so soon be gathered from the living 
world. It so came to pass ; and even on that very night 
the red fire-glow of the volcano was seen playing on the 
crown. 



XV 
BATTLING WITH PELEE 

Thkotjghout the whole of Friday, August 29, Pelee 
kept up a continuous growl. The sound came to us like 
the rumbling of wagons crossing a bridge, and at times like 
distant thunder. M. Louis des Grottes, our host at the 
Habitation Leyritz, where we had been installed the evening 
before, felt uneasy, and thought that many days might 
elapse before an ascent of the mountain could properly be 
attempted. On the evening of Monday preceding there had 
been a wonderful exhibition of volcanic pyrotechnics, and 
everybody spoke of the great "flames" that were seen to 
shoot out from the crater, of the volcanic corona and of 
scintillant stars ; and since then the volcano had been con- 
tinually in unrest. Refugees were seeking the roads at all 
points, and the north of the island was once more in the 
condition that marked the early days of May. The Habita- 
tion Leyritz lies on the northeastern foot of Mont Pelee, at 
an elevation of about five hundred feet above the sea, and I 
had selected it, on the invitation of M. des Grottes, as a base 
of operations alternative to Ajoupa-Bouillon or Morne Balai, 
it being more closely approached to the volcano than either 
Assier or Vive. Its position is delightfully in the path of 
the ocean breezes, and its stately cocoa-palms are only 
four miles distant, a vol oVoiseau, from the active crater of 
the volcano. When we arrived there shortly before sun- 

216 



BATTLING WITH PELEE 217 

set the hour of rest had already been proclaimed to the 
workers on the estate, and inquisitive groups of coolies and 
dark Creoles lingered and loitered about, some chanting the 
evening hymn. The little Martinique blackbirds whistled 
out their beautiful and mellow notes until late in the even- 
ing, and after that, except for the roar of the volcano, the 
" silence of night" was left to the minstrelsy of the tree- 
toads. 

We were up some time before the rising sun, and saw 
the day break fair, with a gentle breeze sweeping over the 
tops of the nodding cane. A few bad clouds were chasing- 
after the eastern horizon, and others hung over the black 
peaks of Carbet, but they went the right way for us, and 
they augured well. The difficulties that attend starting in 
the tropics delayed our departure until after six o'clock, an 
hour that seemed early enough for the kind of day that 
promised. An hour before that time it was still dark. At 
Morne Balai, which we reached in half an hour, my little 
party, consisting of Julian Cochrane and myself, with three 
foot attendants, was joined by seven volunteers, who felt 
that the spirit of the volcano had been controlled by us, 
and believed that they could courageously follow in our 
footsteps. One of these I had well known from my earlier 
ascents, and he stood as prophet and informant to the 
others, basing his superiority upon a very fragmentary 
knowledge of English. Our purpose to study the great 
cone that had so rapidly built itself up in the heart of the 
crater was perhaps unknown to the joining party, but they 
held their courage well throughout the greater part of the 



218 BATTLING WITH PELEB 

day. Alas ! poor souls, they little expected that the tongue 
of the fiery dragon would visit their homes ere night had 
fairly fallen, and bring sorrow and death to the heart of a 
peaceful and quiet-loving community. When I last rode 
through the garden-lanes of Morne Balai everything was 
deserted — the gardens were empty and the doors of the 
thatched cottages closed. New ashes had fallen since the 
day of Saint Pierre, and the inhabitants lacked the courage 
to remain. Life had now come back to the village, and 
how beautiful this morning were the copses of banana, of 
palm and breadfruit, the hedge-rows, and the great blazing 
blossoms of the hibiscus ! A more charming village scene 
could hardly be found. 

Our course up Pelee was from this point the same that I 
had taken on my previous ascents, over the easy arete that 
forms the central eastern ray of the volcano, and lies a little 
northward of the ravine of the Falaise. The conditions of 
the ascent on this day were surprisingly favorable, and we 
were able to make use of our animals up to a height of 
nearly two thousand three hundred feet. A light growth of 
grass had begun to cover the arid slope of ash and cinder, 
and the blackened forest of the ravine slopes was also 
touched on the crown with green. The beautiful tree-ferns, 
more particularly, gave evidence of this new life, and they 
promised to restore in a short time to Mont Pelee that 
verdure for which the mountain had been dear to the Mar- 
tiniquians. It was evident that the burned forest was not 
absolutely dead, and its greens were already being picked 
by troops of blackbirds, fly-catchers, and the hirondelle- 



BATTLING WITH PELEE 219 

mouche. Myriads of green and green-and-black caterpillars 
were cropping the new vegetation. They had found a com- 
fortable home in this newly regenerated upper world, and 
were making the best of their time. It was evident that 
the volcano had blown to them a good wind. Such sudden 
visitations of insects to recovering volcanic regions have 
been noted before, and have brought many problems to the 
entomologist which still await solution. 

We left our animals shortly after eight o'clock, and at that 
time the volcano was raging. The steam-cloud roared out 
of a seething furnace and swept the summit from our view. 
Back of us dark-blue shadows were checkering the receding 
landscape, but the ocean was the blue and green of the 
coral reef, and lovely Morne Rouge was bathed in warm 
sunshine. Nearer to us Ajoupa-Bouillon, slumbering in 
sunlight and shadow, lay almost at our feet. We picked 
our way leisurely up the cinder slope, but it was evident 
that ejected bombs had recently scarred its surface, for 
there were furrows and troughs and great boulders where 
none had been before. We also noted a number of the 
puzzling crater-like shallow pits or hollows which some 
have thought to associate with falling rocks, others with 
earthquake phenomena. In a few minutes more we were 
in the storm-cloud, with only bits of landscape to fol- 
low us as companions. The great knob of Morne Jacob 
appeared and disappeared, and at intervals we could glance 
into the deep gorges on either side of us, but of the summit 
of the mountain there was nothing. Our Martinique asso- 
ciates were uneasy, for from the invisible gray ahead came 



220 BATTLING WITH PELEE 

the terrific voice of the volcano. There were no accentu- 
ated detonations, but a continuous roar that was simply 
appalling. I thought on ray previous ascent to have heard 
something, but this time it was the old sound multiplied 
a hundred-fold. No words can describe it. Were it pos- 
sible to unite all the furnaces of the globe into a single 
one, and to simultaneously let loose their blasts of steam, it 
does not seem to me that such a sound could be produced. 
It was not loud in the sense of a peal of thunder, but of 
fiery and tempestuous storm, that could best be compared 
with the blowing of the ocean's wind through the shrouds 
of a full-rigged ship, only ten times that. The mountain 
fairly quivered under its work, and it was perhaps not 
wholly discreditable that some of us should have felt any- 
thing but comfortable. 

Where was all this ? we asked ourselves. In front of us, 
but invisible. My aneroid gave for our elevation three 
thousand four hundred feet — therefore we were only six 
hundred feet below the summit-level which marked the 
position of the Lac des Palmistes. There appeared to be 
no barometric disturbance, nor was the compass-needle 
affected. A whistling bomb flew past us at this time, but it 
left but a comet's train in our ears, for it could not be seen. 
We took it first for a flying bird, but its course was soon 
followed by another, and then came the dull thud of its 
explosion in air. Deep down the river we could hear the 
scattered parts tumbling, sliding and crackling. We 
could no longer deceive ourselves as to the character 
of the struggle into which we had entered. The ominous 



BATTLING WITH PELEE 



221 



clicks in the air told us what we might at any moment 
expect. 

We moved up slowly, hardly more than a few paces at 
a time, but with hope given to us in the occasional rifting 
of the clouds. Time and time again the summit crest ap- 
peared beneath the rolling vapors, and it really seemed as 




Photo. Heilprin 



THE BOMB-SCARRED SLOPE OF PELEE 



if the cone, of which we were in search, would suddenly 
come to view. When we had reached about three thousand 
eight hundred feet the fusillade of bombs became over- 
poweringly strong, and we were obliged to retreat. We 
were in battle. The clouds had become lighter, and we 
could at times see the bombs and boulders coursing through 



222 BATTLING WITH PELEE 

the air in parabolic curves and straight lines, driven and 
shot out as if from a giant catapult. They whistled past 
us on both sides, and our position became decidedly uncom- 
fortable ; many of the fragments took almost direct paths, 
and must have been shot into their courses as a result of 
explosions taking place above the summit of the volcano. 
They flew by us at close range. Descending perhaps one 
hundred feet lower on the slope, we took shelter under a 
somewhat rolling knob and waited for a possible cessation 
of the fusillade. A glance at my men showed that they 
were thoroughly frightened, and most of them were making 
quick tracks to a lower level. A lull favored a further 
effort. Not wishing to incur any responsibility in a call 
for company in what appeared to be a rather hazardous 
enterprise, I made a second attempt by myself, keeping 
my body as close to the ground as was possible. The 
clouds soon separated me from my associates, and all of 
visible nature that was left to me was a patch of slope and 
the shifting vapors. Mr. Cochrane's figure was the last to 
disappear. The roar of the volcano was terrific — awful 
beyond description. It felt as if the very earth were being 
sawed in two. In about a quarter of an hour I reached a 
point just below the summit — the crest of the old lake 
basin — which was being heavily raked by the fire of the 
volcano. I could see no more than before. Everything 
was as if in a surging sea, and neither the cone nor what 
was left of the Morne de La Croix was visible. I crouched 
down to the ground, but to no purpose. It was useless to 
remain longer in the open fire, and I descended to join my 



BATTLING WITH PELEE 223 

associates. Mr. Cochrane was near at hand, working his 
camera and seemingly indifferent to the encircling storm, 
but the negroes had gone far below, carrying our provisions 
with them. I was surprised, indeed, that they should have 
retained their courage for so long a time, for Pelee had been 
unusually active for a number of days, and if men ever 
feared anything, it was this grim monster of Martinique. 
But most of them had remembered my earlier ascents, and 
they childishly seemed to feel that there was shelter in my 
wake. 

Shortly before noon a sudden lifting of the clouds re- 
vealed the volcano in all its majestic fury. For the first 
time since we reached its slopes were we permitted to see its 
steam-column — that furious, swirling mass ahead of us, tow- 
ering miles above the summit, and sweeping up in curls and 
festoons of white, yellow and almost black. It boiled with 
ash. The majestic cauliflower clouds rose on all sides, join- 
ing with the central column, and it was evident that the 
entire crater was working, bottom as well as summit, and 
with a vigor that it would be useless to attempt to describe. 
Higher and higher they mount, until the whole is lost in 
the great leaden umbrella which seemed to overspread the 
whole earth. I estimated the diameter of the column as it 
left the crest of the mountain to be not less than fifteen 
hundred feet, and its rate of ascent from one and a half to 
two miles a minute, and considerably greater at the initial 
moment of every new eruption. Great exploding puffs 
were following one another in rapid succession, and they 
told the story of what was going on inside the volcano. 



224 BATTLING WITH PELEE 

Cochrane and I were not the only ones to be inspired 
by this extraordinary and bewildering spectacle. Our 
Martinique meu seemed equally overcome by a grandeur 
of nature, terrifying as it was beautiful, which they had not 
before seen, and of their own accord initiated a new effort 
to reach the summit. We climbed back to our former posi- 
tion, but the bombardment was too strong for us, and we 
thought best to desist. The prospects for study were any- 
thing but promising, and it was thought unnecessary at 
this time to take further risks. Of our party of twelve 
there were now only four left on the upper slopes of the 
volcano, but we still hoped for one more chance. For a 
half hour or so we took refuge in a hollow sufficiently deep 
to about clear our heads, and waited. But even the pleas- 
ures of a mountain lunch did not quite make this place 
restful, for the bursting bombs flew thick to one side, and 
we were too eager to watch the flying fragments to permit 
ourselves a free moment. Every scattering mass brought 
us to our feet, only to see and hear the fragments plunging 
into the abyss that lay to one side. Cochrane and I moved 
a piece higher up, and then abandoned the effort. " Where 
did this last block burst?" I asked of my associate, and 
before my question was answered we were spattered with 
mud from head to foot by a great boulder, hardly smaller 
than a flour-barrel, which fell within ten feet of us, or 
less. 

When we reached the lower slopes we were covered 
with ash and mud. For an hour or more we were nearly 
beneath the centre of the great ash-cloud, whose murky 



BATTLING WITH PELEE 225 

masses hung at a dizzy height above us. Its mantle-sheet 
carried darkness to Macouba and Grande Riviere, and far 
over Dominica and Gaudeloupe the black mass still swept 
out to sea. I believe that the ash-cloud must have been 
fully six miles above our heads. It rolled out a few peals 
of thunder, but we observed no flashes of lightning. The 
ash fell lightly, and coming mixed with water soon con- 
solidated into a paste. It had the temperature of the 
surrounding air — was not warm. There were no large 
particles. The coarser material fell miles from us, at 
positions situated more nearly under the periphery of the 
cloud. 

It is singular that even at the point where I was nearest 
to the issuing steam, a distance of probably less than four 
hundred feet, no marked atmospheric disturbance was per- 
ceptible, nothing to even remotely suggest a cyclonic or 
suctional whirl. One could readily have expected some- 
thing of this kind to occur. Nor do I believe that there 
was any noticeable elevation in the temperature of the air. 
Unfortunately, the single thermometer that I had with me 
had broken earlier in the day, and, therefore, my note on 
this point rests solely on a personal impression. Certainly 
there was no emphasized change in temperature. I could 
detect no gaseous emanations, except, perhaps, a very feeble 
taint of sulphur. 

When we again got on the level ground back of the 
Habitation Leyritz we were startled by a most violent erup- 
tion from Pelee, a great shaft of steam and ash being sud- 
denly shot out to a most marvellous height, perhaps not less 

15 



226 • BATTLING WITH PELEE 

than five or six miles. It went up as a distinct column of 
its own, swiftly distancing the other cloud-masses by which 
it was enveloped. It was a prelude to the incidents of the 
evening that followed. 



1 


• «..=*:'../ /'- 


M/Hk 


r-m 



THE RORAIMA BURNING 



XVI 

A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION AND THE DESTRUC- 
TION OF MORNE ROUGE AND 
AJOUPA-BOUILLON 

We arrived at our shelter a little before five o'clock, 
somewhat to the relief of the household, who had become 
apprehensive regarding our safety. Early in the evening 
the big blaze from an incendiary fire announced the destruc- 
tion of the case de bagasse of the Habitation Pecoul, but it 
gave us little concern, as our cane-fields were sufficiently 
removed to insure them from contact with the flames. Still, 
M. des Grottes thought it advisable to examine the premises, 
and he rode down with his brother more, perhaps, as a 
pastime than as a necessity, returning for a late evening 
meal. While still seated at the table, a flash of lightning 
and a dull thud told us in an instant that something was 
happening. We were out at once. This was a few min- 
utes, perhaps a quarter of an hour, after nine o'clock. 
The volcano was still distantly growling. The heavens 
were aglow with fire, electric flashes of blinding intensity 
traversing the recesses of black and purple clouds, and 
casting a lurid pallor over the darkness that shrouded the 
world. Scintillating stars burst forth like crackling fire- 
works, and serpent lines wound themselves in and out like 
travelling wave-crests. The spectacle was an extraordinary 
and terrifying one, and I confess that it left an impression 

227 



228 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

of uncomfortable doubt in our minds as to what would be 
the issue. One could not but feel that a tremendous de- 
struction was impending. 

The number of forms in which the illumination ap- 
peared was bewildering, and I can only recall a few the 
picture of which presented itself to my eyes with precision : 
short, straight, rod-like lines, wave-lines, spirals, long-armed 
stars, and circles with star-arms hanging off from the bor- 
der like so many tails. In addition to these were the scin- 
tillant stars to which reference has already been made, and 
the blinding flashes of normal or zig-zag lightning. There 
were no peals of thunder, but a continuous roar swept 
through the heavens, mounting with crescendos and fall- 
ing off with alternating, far-reaching diminuendos. Some 
pretend to have heard a feeble crackling, like that which 
is so often heard in association with an auroral display, but 
I am not sure that I could record this condition, which 
may easily have existed, among my own experiences. The 
flashes were bewilderingly numerous, and the singular forms 
interwoven with one another in such a way as to make local- 
ization difficult. The scintillant stars alone appeared to 
have a place of their own, nearer the border of the great 
cloud, and perhaps in the highest parts of it. Directly 
over the summit of Pelee there was little to be seen. Who 
is there to tell us what these peculiar flashes are? Are 
they electric, or are they the flashes of burning gases ? It 
would, probably, be easy to determine their nature by 
means of the spectroscope, but this form of examination has 
not yet been made. It is certain that most of them are 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 229 

not connective discharges, for they run through, or are 
contained in, individual clouds of small dimensions. The 
phenomena appear to be identical with those which were 
noted to accompany the great eruption of Tarawera, in New 
Zealand, in 1886. 20 

As our eyes feasted upon this scene of majestic gran- 
deur, we almost lost sight of the fact that ashes were falling 
about us. A great pattering of pumice and lapilli had 
ushered in the storm, and for a while it sounded as if we 
were in a tropical hail-storm. Only the fragments first 
thrown were large, a few an inch or more in size, and those 
following were like peas and lentils, and then like sand. 
But even the smaller particles came down with much force, 
and the flesh stung as it was touched by them. They were 
all angular bits of andesite or trachyte, white and gray in 
color. We were out in our bared heads, but it was soon 
found necessary to protect them. The fall lasted somewhat 
over an hour, or to nearly half-past ten. All motion in 
the atmosphere ceased at this time, and for once the location 
Leyritz lost its usual refreshing coolness. The falling ash 
felt warm, but M. des Grottes's thermometer failed to indi- 
cate anything special. 

It was not given to us to close the night quietly. The 
flashing sky above and the falling ash had yet a comple- 
ment. For over an hour the southwest was glowing fiery 
red, and patches of lurid light moved themselves into the 
black of the volcanic cloud. No flame was visible, but it 
was only too evident that fire was devastating somewhere. 
Morne Rouge lay to the same point of the compass, and we 



230 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

intuitively asked ourselves if it could be that town aflame. 
Ajoupa-Bouillon lay a little to one side, almost adjoining us, 
and if it were on fire we could easily have seen the flames. 
When we retired for the night, M. des Grottes had decided 
to desert the habitation. Pelee was too close to us, and too 
active to be sought for as the simple ornament which 
it had been designated by the Scientific Commission of 
1851. Most of the working inhabitants of the planta- 
tion had betaken themselves to the coast immediately after 
the first storm of the evening, terror-stricken with the un- 
ceasing roar of the volcano and the flashing lightning, and 
my own men had joined them in their mad flight. All 
thoughts of a new exploration of the summit of the volcano 
on the morrow had vanished. It was not without appre- 
hension that the great door of the manse was closed that 
night. I did not quite share M. des Grottes's fears that 
there might be no one in the morning to open it, but the 
hours for rest were spent mainly in thinking. 

The night-air was almost without breeze, so different 
from what we had had up till now. I tossed around until 
about one o'clock, sleeping in snatches, but hardly 
resting. At this time there was another sharp pattering 
of cinders, and I moved up to the window, only to see 
darkness. On another side the sky was flashing bright 
tongues of light, but I saw nothing of it, and knew not 
that it was taking place. Before retiring again I had to 
clear my bed of ashes, for the covers and pillows were being 
rapidly filled, and a new fall was only just beginning. 
The poor tree-toads, despite everything, were still chirping, 




Expl. Heilprin 



Underwood & Underwood, Stereos. Photo., New York, Copyright, 1902 
BEFORE A SHRINE— MORNE ROUGE 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 231 

and manifestly to them life was not a burden, nor even a 
piece of anxiety. I do not know to what extent it is true 
that before the eruption of May 8 the animals of the field 
and forest gave signs of uneasiness, and summarily left 
their homes in search of new quarters. Nothing of this 
kind appears to have been noted on this side, which is in 
itself not conclusive evidence denying the condition re- 
ported, and I know that on Sunday morning the blackbirds 
were, as usual, gambolling about the cocoanut crowns, and 
sending out their joyful notes to greet the rising sun. 

Before the morning had yet broken, news reached us 
that the fiery tongue of Pelee had carried death and deso- 
lation to Morne Balai. The flash of nine o'clock, when the 
heavens were glowing and scintillating with fire, was the 
lumen that showed the path to the pretty village which we 
had left hardly five hours before, and from which weeping 
messengers had now come to ask for aid. I immediately 
rode out with M. Edouard des Grottes to ascertain the extent 
of the casualties and what in fact had taken place. We 
had hardly a mile to go, even with the windings of the 
path, and were soon conducted to the scene of the disaster. 
In one of the low thatched cottages two bodies were stretched 
out stiff in death, and near by others were lying groaning 
in agony from the terrible burns they had received. Still 
others, which we did not see, were in the neighboring cases. 
We gave such comfort as reassuring words could offer, but, 
alas ! of what value are they ? M. des Grottes arranged 
for the care and removal of the wounded, and we then left. 
One of those who had been with me on the mountain in 



232 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

the afternoon was a victim to the volcano's wrath, and his 
body lay not far from the hut where we had halted for a 
few minutes for a friendly chat, and which was now flat 
with the ground. It had tumbled with the volcano's blast ; 
others like it had fallen under the weight of ash that had 
been showered upon them. 

My parting from Morne Balai was a sad one. It was 
hard to realize that this pretty little village, which appeared 
to me so joyful a few hours before, should now be clouded 
in the shadow of death — death driven to it by the same 
force whose enigma I was attempting to penetrate. As we 
looked down upon it from the slopes of Pelee, it lay so 
peacefully embowered beneath its clumps of verdure, ap- 
parently so far from danger's door. Nature had turned her 
hand and heart, but this was only a part of the history of 
the night before. Ajoupa-Bouillon, Morne Rouge, Morne 
Capot, the heights of Bourdon, were wrecked, or had been 
entirely wiped out, and with them two thousand more of 
Martinique's inhabitants were sent to their graves. On all 
these sites we had gazed in the quieter afternoon ; we had 
noted the fleeting cloud-shadows passing over them, and 
seen the smiling fields and forests that bound them into one 
vast sea of green. Desolation had swept all this into gray 
and black. The very slope that we had travelled over was 
culled in the fiery blast, and wreck and ruin were every- 
where. Our own escape was, indeed, a very narrow one, 
for the blast swept the land to both sides of us, and even 
descended to the rear of the Habitation. Good fortune 
much more than management gave to us our place of refuge. 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 233 

It was only when we reached Vive that the full extent 
of the catastrophe was made known to us. The great sugar 
estate had once more set her wheels moving, and from the 
lofty chimney curls of smoke were again peacefully flowing 
over the verdant fields of cane. The Riviere Capot, whose 
dcbordements had been so much feared and had caused so 
much damage, was no longer a dangerous stream, and confi- 
dence came to all who felt that the worst of Pelee was over. 
Its work was thought to belong to the south and to the west, 
and few feared, even in the face of the magnificent pyro- 
technic display of later days, that anything serious could 
happen on this side. Refugees had been returning by hun- 
dreds to their abandoned habitations, and the silence of 
desolation once more woke to the voice of the living. 

In front of the great Usine, when we arrived there 
this time, crowds of refugees coming from Basse-Pointe, 
Macouba and Grande-Riviere, and from minor hamlets in 
the interior, had assembled, and travelling parties were all 
over the roadways. Afoot and on wagon, everybody was 
going, with no one having a good word for the country. 
Improvised ambulances were being sent in to Ajoupa- 
Bouillon, and since the earlier hours of morning the 
wounded were being brought out in scores and sent down 
to Grande- Anse to be placed under government treatment. 
The good people of the Usine were doing everything that 
under the circumstances could be done to alleviate the suf- 
ferings of those who were still living, but, unfortunately, 
for many their work came too late, for they died on the 
roadway. And perhaps it was best that it was so, for 



234 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

death removed from the body an agony that cannot be con- 
ceived, while the chance for recovery was all but nil. Less 
than four months had elapsed since the catastrophe of May 
8 overwhelmed Saint Pierre, and the tragedy was being 
enacted over again. 

M. Joseph Clerc kindly invited me to join him in a 
survey of the situation at Ajoupa-Bouillon, and we rode 
out almost immediately after my return to Vive. The 
village of Ajoupa-Bouillon lies on the eastern foot of Mont 
Pelee, in a direct line not more than one mile from the 
more recognized slope of the volcano, and at elevations 
ranging from about eight hundred to thirteen hundred 
feet above the sea, some extreme parts rising possibly 
higher. It is connected on the inner side with Morne 
Rouge by one of the finest roads in the island, which before 
the catastrophe of this day was bordered by a woodland of 
singular beauty. Its houses were mainly of wood, but 
there were others of a more substantial construction, and 
nearly all had gardens of their own. A graceful church 
steeple, still standing, rises up from nearly the highest part 
of the village. Four days before this second visit I had 
come out with the acting Mayor of the village, M. Kloss, to 
look over his large cacao estates, and to join in an excursion 
to the Trianon, the site of a former hospital camp, situated 
directly above what had been assumed to be a new crater in 
the gorge of the Falaise. At that time Ajoupa-Bouillon 
looked more attractive than I had ever seen it before. The 
vegetation was at its best, and seemed to have profited by 
the ash that had been thrown over it in the early days of 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 235 

May. Not here alone, but all over the north this extreme 
of "pushing" fertility was noticeable, and everybody 
remarked upon the luxuriance of growth which distin- 
guished field as well as forest. To this end, at least, of 
adding fertility to the soil, the volcano may have con- 
tributed, and done something to redeem its bad name. 
To-day, alas ! much of this had gone. In place of field 
and forest there were desolate plains, gray-scarred, ash- 
covered, and bleak almost as the African desert. We 
looked over to the mountain-heights and down into the 
valleys and gorges, and everywhere the eye fell upon ruin 
and desolation. Only back of us and in the farther dis- 
tance was there enough of verdure left to remind us of the 
past. 

The force of the destruction was extraordinary. Be- 
fore we reached the main scene of the catastrophe the wreck 
was already fully indicated in a number of houses which 
were laid flat with the ground, and in overturned trees with 
buttressed roots lyiug to the side of the coming blast. 
Boards were found completely penetrated by others that 
had been shot through them. It was evident at a glance 
that it was the history of Saint Pierre over again. The 
zone of destruction began a short distance above and be- 
yond the church, and extended almost without interruption, 
so far as we could see from the heights, to Morne Bouge. 
Looking over to the site of that town, we saw before us 
nothing but a withered plain, with arid slopes on one side 
of it, and slightly green mornes on the other. Cattle and 
horses were lying on their backs, with their, legs rigidly 



236 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

extended into mid-air. A few more fortunate beasts, with 
raw flesh protruding from their tightened hides, were 
moving aimlessly about, as if dazed by the conditions that 
now surrounded them. Clear up to the low saddle between 
the Morne Jacob and the Calebasse the eye followed the 
bleak landscape, and it was plain to see that the tornadic 
blast had this time lined its course over this arete, instead of 
confining itself to the zone of the Riviere Blanche on the 
opposite side of the mountain. The first houses that we 
examined had simply collapsed. They occupied their own 
ground and were merely a mass of sticks and roof material, 
covering all that the houses contained — inmates probably as 
well as their belongings. We put our ears to the ground 
and to the planking, but could hear no sound. Off on a 
side-lane we passed a little cottage apparently untouched 
on the exterior, and hearing deep moaning we entered. A 
poor woman, of perhaps thirty years, was rolling in agony 
in one corner of a dark room, her flesh terribly burned and 
hanging in places from the bone. She called incessantly 
for water to relieve her excoriated throat, but it could not 
be furnished. M. Clerc sent immediately for the gendarme, 
to have her removed where friendly care could be adminis- 
tered to her, but she died shortly after our leaving. 

We entered another case near by. A dim taper illu- 
mined a nearly black interior sufficiently to permit us to 
see a writhing figure being tended by the hand of one who 
was left probably dearest to it. The cries of pain were 
heart-rending. Flies were swarming everywhere about the 
place and the odor was almost unbearable, as the precaution 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 237 

had been taken to keep the door closed. A body, relieved 
from anguish, lay stiff in another corner. We passed from 
this to another house and saw the same picture repeated. 
In reply to inquiries put to him by M. Clerc, one of the 
inmates, perhaps less terribly burned than some others, 
stated that he had been struck by the hot blast at the mo- 
ment of opening the door of his case, which he had done 
assuming that the storm had passed. Instantly the fiery 
air enveloped him, and he felt the sensation of choking. 
There seemed to be no air to breathe. His flesh was as 
if baked and steamed, with raw red masses appearing 
where there was no longer skin. The clothing had re- 
mained untouched. I inquired if he had noted gas of any 
kind. He replied in the negative, except to the extent 
that a feeble sulphurous odor, already appreciable in the 
earlier part of the evening, could be detected. We obtained 
almost exactly the same history from an adjoining cottage. 
In some cases, perhaps even a large number, where the 
cottages had the doors and windows firmly closed, and 
were able to withstand the force of the tornadic ferment, 
there was little or no injury done. In the greater num- 
ber of cases, however, it is certain that the fiery breath en- 
tered even where every opening avenue had been secured. 
This was also the case, as I ascertained later, at Morne 
Rouge. 

There was here, as at Saint Pierre, the same reference 
to the feu, or fire, but it was evident that only a heated or 
a luminous blast was conveyed by this designation, and 
nothing burning with a flame. It seems certain that in 



238 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

some instances the darkness of the interiors was actually 
illumined at the time of the entry of the hot blast, and 
some claim to have seen electric discharges traverse the 
room. I think this condition exceedingly likely, and have 
always believed that localized lightning must have played 
an important part in the destruction of life at Saint Pierre. 
There was no evidence at Ajoupa-Bouillon of anything 
having burned with a flame within the village itself nor 
in the surroundings. One-half or more of the settlement 
had been scorched or swept out of existence, but there had 
been no fire of any kind. The sticks and planking of the 
cottages showed no change to the eyes, except that they 
had become gray, mainly, perhaps, as the result of the 
splattering with ash. Even the dry palm-thatching had 
remained intact, with no evidence of true burning of any 
kind. The trees and bushes that still stood in and out 
of the village had their leaves, clinging to the twigs and 
branches, shrivelled up and turned to gray and umber. 
Nothing had been carbonized, although the sap had been ex- 
terminated and the smaller twigs broke fragile. I searched 
in vain for any indication of active terrestrial gases, and 
could detect no trace of any gaseous odor, not even that of 
sulphur. 

The destruction of Ajoupa-Bouillon took place almost 
immediately after nine o'clock of the previous evening. 
It was also the time of the destruction of Morne Rouge 
and the invasion of Morne Capot, and there can be no 
question that all the havoc that had been wrought on this 
fatal August 30 was the result of one explosive blast, 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 239 

whatever may have been its exact nature, or of a series 
of such blasts following rapidly upon one another. It is 
singular that we, who were passing the evening at the abso- 
lute foot of the volcano, much closer to it than some points 
that had been destroyed, and remarking upon the magnifi- 
cence of the electric display, absolutely above us, should 
barely, if at all, have noted the detonations which pre- 
ceded, accompanied or followed the explosions. At St. 
Kitts, two hundred and seventy miles northwestward, the 
booming of the volcano sounded at this time like the 
cannonading of a naval combat in which the largest guns 
were being used; and the same observation was made at 
Port-of-Spain and elsewhere in Trinidad, at a somewhat 
farther distance in a direct line southward. In Fort-de- 
France hardly more than the continuous terrific roar of the 
volcano could be heard, and it was this, together with the 
illumined ash-cloud, which threw the inhabitants into con- 
sternation and initiated the new panic. I confess my ina- 
bility to satisfactorily explain this singular disposition of 
the sound-waves, as every explanation that has suggested 
itself to me seems to meet with some objection. It is not 
the distance at which the detonations were noted which 
imposes the difficulty to the problem, but the fact that so 
transcendent a sound, originated with explosive violence, 
should hardly have been noted in or near the epicentral 
region. Is it an extreme condition of sound-shadow ? Or 
has the cavernous and " blanketed" condition of the vol- 
cano something to do with this ? Or are we forced to admit 
a series of paroxysmal deep-seated explosions occurring 



240 A NIGHT OP ILLUMINATION 

in the horizontal conduit of the volcano, and immediately- 
antecedent to the vertical discharge ? The latter condition, 
apart from ariy relation to the present inquiry, is, of course, 
well possible, and even very likely. The acoustical rela- 
tions of the May 8 eruption were similar to those of the 
later day, and it is interesting to note that Alexander von 
Humboldt, referring to the eruption of the Soufriere of St. 
Vincent in 1812, remarks upon the same peculiarity of 
sound-carriage — the eruption being more distinctly audible 
at a distance from the island than near to it. 21 

The conditions of time did not permit me to visit Morne 
Rouge, and my only glimpse of the destroyed city was 
obtained in sailing out from the island. The sole struct- 
ure visible was the stately church and its sharp steeple, 
always so prominent as seen from the site of the northern 
Saint Pierre. A part of the roof had been lifted, but this 
could not be seen — nor the other remaining houses which 
told of the former existence of a city whose population 
ranged from three thousand to four thousand or more. 
Like its sister city, Saint Pierre, to whose wealthier inhabi- 
tants it ministered the cool of mountain breezes and the 
solace of verdant fields and forests, Morne Rouge was wiped 
out — razed to the ground and in part burned aflame. The 
glare of its fire was plainly visible to us at the Habitation 
Leyritz. The country on all sides of the town was deso- 
lated, and nothing remained of the beautiful greens which 
gave the charm to the location. The whole Calebasse slope 
was swept clear, and far off, on the heights of Fonds-Saint- 
Denis and over nearly to the Pitons de Carbet, could we see 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 241 

the entering-wedges of the scarred vegetation. Pelee had 
wonderfully increased its zone of force. 

There would appear to be at this time no way of closely 
approximating the casualties at Morne Rouge, although it 
is all but certain that at least twelve hundred perished. On 
the morning of the fatal day, as I was informed by one of 
the Brothers associated with the Vicar- General of Martin- 
ique, M. Parel, two thousand one hundred rations had been 
distributed by the government officials, the bulk of the pop- 
ulation being still held on the list of the sinistres of May 8. 
It is thought that several hundreds must have sought more 
secure quarters (where ?) during the day, when the activity 
of the volcano became unbearable, and of this number 
probably the greater part was saved. The Vicar-General 
himself believed that from twelve hundred to fifteen hun- 
dred perished, excepting perhaps fifty or sixty, all who re- 
mained up to the hour of nine o'clock. Many of the 
corpses were swept far from the site of the catastrophe, 
others remained buried under the debris that lies over 
them, and still others were burned to a crisp mass. Save 
the church and two or three other buildings, all the houses 
of the town were of wood. 

A particularly sad moment in the annihilation of Morne 
Rouge was the taking away of Pere Mary, the good curate of 
the church, whose faithful work in ministering to the wants 
of those who stayed during the storm of May 8 will long 
be remembered in the history of Martinique. He had only 
recently returned from Fort-de-France, and now perished 
with nearly all those who had returned with him, thinking 

16 



242 A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 

that danger had passed. When the presbytery was on fire 
he sought the shelter of the church, but was struck by the 
hot blast before that building could be reached. He suc- 
ceeded, however, in dragging himself into the interior, and, 
with terrible suffering, stretched himself upon a bench. 
Here he was found at four o'clock of the following morn- 
ing, still fully conscious and expressing anxiety for his 
flock. He was removed to Fonds-Saint-Denis, and thence 
to Fort-de-France, where he expired at eleven o'clock of the 
morning of September 1 — a man honored by all. 

At the Hopital of Fort-de-France I had the advantage 
of an interview with a lovely French girl of perhaps seven- 
teen years, Mile. Desiree Martin-d'Harcourt, who had been 
brought down as one of the wounded from Morne Rouge, 
and who gave me a very intelligent statement of her impres- 
sions of what had taken place on the evening of the 30th. 
Her mother, more burned than herself, and also her 
brother, were being cared for in the same room. The fam- 
ily had retired for the night, not being able to stand the 
strain which the roaring of the volcano imposed upon them 
any longer, and firmly secured the house, closing everything. 
Shortly after nine o'clock a dull detonation was heard, and 
the outer shutter (sous-le-vent) was released from its bar 
fastenings and swung open. Instantly the hot blast entered 
and commenced its terrible rasping work. Mile. Desiree 
was confident that it was luminous or electric in character. 
Refuge was sought under the beds, and mattresses were 
hauled down to cover the protruding feet. At this time, 
thinking that the storm had passed, Mme. Martin-d'Har- 



A NIGHT OF ILLUMINATION 243 

court opened the door, only to admit a second and stronger 
blast, to which she nearly succumbed. All experienced 
extreme difficulty in breathing, but the sensation of choking 
was only momentary. Sulphurous odors were strongly 
perceptible. The Martin-d'Harcourt home was one of the 
better properties of Morne Rouge, and doubtless owed its 
escape from destruction to superior construction, as it stood 
sufficiently exposed to the storm. Mme. Martin-d'Harcourt 
succumbed to her wounds the day following my visit. 



XVII 

THE SOTTFRlERE OF ST. VINCENT AND THE 
AFTERGLOWS 

The disposition of my time in the Lesser Antilles did not 
permit me to conduct investigations in St. Vincent, and 
my only view of the Soufriere was from the deck of a small 
coastwise steamer coming from and going to Martinique on 
May 26 and 27. The atmosphere was, fortunately, clear, 
and we obtained as we approached and passed the mouth of 
the Wallibou River an almost unobstructed picture of the 
great volcano, whose cloud was drifting eastward, and of a 
large part of the plain that marked one of the most noted 
areas in the region of volcanic destruction. Puffs of steam 
were rising from many parts of the Wallibou Valley, and 
great blasts, coming at almost regular intervals, defined 
positions of greatest accumulation of the ejecta, to which the 
running waters spasmodically found their way. These sec- 
ondary explosions were similar to those which appear in 
the basin of the Riviere Blanche, in Martinique, but they 
were much more numerous here than at any time, as I had 
observed them, in the latter locality, except immediately 
after the eruption of August 30. The more irregularly 
cloaked and incised plain of the Wallibou, turning the 
waters to widely-diverging courses, sufficiently accounts for 
this. 

In the great valley that lay ahead of us, and that in its 

244 




Underwood & Underwood, Stereos. Photo., New York, Copyright, 1902 
THE DARKENING CLOUD OF JUNE 6, 1902 



THE SOUFEIEKE OF ST. VINCENT 245 

upper part is turned towards the Soufriere, were two great 
arms of black mud, which hung like receding glaciers in 
their expanded beds. They were overflows from disrupting 
waters, and had their black color from being wet. In gen- 
eral appearance they were like black lava-flows, and it was 
easy to understand how, from a distance, they should origi- 
nally have been taken to be such. At the time when I first 
passed Mont Pelee a similar sheet of black mud, slowly 
creeping down to the ocean front, occupied much of the 
surface of the plain between the Rivieres Blanche and 
Seche. 

The phenomena of the great eruption of the Soufriere 
on May 7, one day in advance of that of Mont Pelee, have 
been carefully studied by a number of investigators and 
shown to be of fundamentally the same nature as those of 
the Martinique volcano. As in Martinique, there was no 
lava-flow ; but in its place, or representing it, there were 
extensive mud-discharges, some of which appear to have 
had their origin in the lake which before the cataclysm 
occupied most of the deep depression of what is known as 
the " old" crater. The observations of Dr. Hovey and 
others point to this crater, which lies southwest of the 
"new" crater, or the crater of 1812, as the seat of the 
activity of this eruption. Its dimensions are stated to be, 
approximately, nine-tenths of a mile in east-and-west diam- 
eter and eight-tenths of a mile from north to south, with a 
depth to the crater-floor of from sixteen hundred to two 
thousand four hundred feet. The areal dimensions of the 
caldron are, therefore, vastly greater than those of the 



246 THE SOUFKIEBE OF ST. YINCENT 

crater of Pelee, perhaps four times as great. The surface 
of the new and shallow boiling lake which in the latter part 
of May and from June to August occupied the deepest part 
of the crater-floor was estimated to be only twelve hundred 
feet above sea-level, whereas the sheet of water that pre- 
ceded it, and which had been famous for its beauty, rose 
seven hundred feet higher (to nineteen hundred and thirty 
feet.) The floor of the crater was thus about twelve hun- 
dred feet lower than the lowest point of the crater of Mont 
Pelee, the basin of the Etang Sec. 

The Soufriere is somewhat less high than Mont Pelee, 
rising to four thousand and forty-eight feet, according to the 
generally received measurements. Like Pelee, its foot con- 
tours a great part of the northern shore of the island, and 
from near its summit radiate off a large number of streams, 
nearly all of which take individual courses to the sea. The 
summit bears two craters, the "old" crater, which has 
already been referred to as the seat of the volcano's latest 
activities, and the " new" crater, or the crater which was 
active in the eruption of 1812, and which lies to the north- 
east of the much larger ancient vent. The two are sepa- 
rated by a saddle which descends to three thousand five 
hundred and fifty feet or lower. A gentle plateau, similar 
to that which contained the Lac des Palmistes on the sum- 
mit of Pelee, extends eastward from the larger crater, and 
passes to the south of the minor crater of 1812. 

Unlike the eruption of Mont Pelee, that of the Sou- 
friere does not appear to have been heralded by antecedent 
outbreaks ; or, if there were such, they went by unnoticed. 



THE SOUFEIEKE OF ST. VINCENT 247 

The earliest awakening symptoms, except rumblings, were 
observed only two days in advance of the cataclysm, on 
May 5 — the day on which the Usine Guerin was over- 
whelmed in Martinique. On that day the water in the 
crater-lake was observed by fishermen who had crossed the 
summit of the mountain to be discolored and agitated, but 
it was not until the day following, Tuesday, the 6th, that 
the working powers of the volcano were put forth in earnest. 
Great clouds of vapor were thrown out towards evening, and 
the crown of the volcano is described as having been illu- 
mined by a glow of " fire." The first explosion with loud 
detonation was noted shortly before three o'clock of the 
afternoon. On the following day, when the main destruc- 
tive work of the volcano was accomplished, the explosions, 
accompanied by vast discharges of ash, bombs and boulders, 
and associated with electric displays and detonations of the 
most intense energy, followed one another in rapid succes- 
sion. They began early in the morning, and it is thought 
that the first appearance of solid matter ejected by the vol- 
cano was noted shortly after six o'clock. The steam col- 
umn was roughly estimated to have reached an altitude of 
thirty thousand feet. The most violent paroxysm would 
seem to have occurred shortly after ten o'clock, but others 
of nearly equal intensity succeeded during several hours, 
or until nearly two o'clock, when a considerable part of the 
island was hidden behind a vast, reddish-purple curtain, 
which swiftly advanced over the land and descended upon 
the sea. A furious fusillade of stones and boulders, a large 
part of them intensely heated when they fell, was kept 



248 THE SOUFRIERE OF ST. YINCENT 

up during most of this time, and was, doubtless, respon- 
sible for a considerable loss of life. 

The official estimate of the loss of life resulting from 
the Soufriere eruption places the deaths at thirteen hundred 
and fifty. Most of those who " weathered the storm" had 
taken refuge in basements and cellars, and had firmly se- 
cured themselves behind fastened blinds and doors. 

Many of the general phenomena noted in the Martinique 
eruption were also observed here, and the effects of tornadic 
hot blasts sweeping off the mountain were marked in the 
same way as on Pelee and in Saint Pierre, masonry being rent 
asunder, trees overturned and stripped of their covering 
and appendages, and flesh scorched and tumefied. There 
was no single concentrated blast, however, such as that 
which annihilated Saint Pierre. 22 The discharges, seemingly 
less powerful than that from Pelee on May 8, and more 
properly comparable with those of August 30 which an- 
nihilated Morne Rouge and other seats of habitation, were, 
so far as we can judge of the effects produced, consecutive 
in action, following one another at not long intervals, and 
radial in the lines of their destruction. 

The following account of the eruption, written two days 
after the major event, is furnished to the Barbados Bulletin 
(May 12) by the Pev. J. H. Darrell, of Kingstown, an 
eye-witness of some of the phenomena which he describes : 
" At seven a.m. on Wednesday, the 7th instant, there was 
another sudden and violent escape of pent-up steam, which 
continued ascending till ten a.m., when other material began 
to be ejected. It would seem that this was the time when 



THE SOUFKIEKE OP ST. VINCENT 249 

the enormous mass of water in the lake of the old crater 
was emitted in gaseous condition. . . . The mountain heaved 
and labored to rid itself of the burning mass of lava heav- 
ing and tossing below. By twelve- thirty p.m. it was evi- 
dent that it had begun to disengage itself of its burden 
by the appearances as of fire flashing now and then around 
the edge of the crater. There was, however, no visible 
ascension of flame. These flame-like appearances were, I 
think, occasioned by the molten lava rising to the neck of 
the volcano. Being quite luminous, the light emitted was 
reflected from the banks, of steam above, giving them the 
appearance of flame. 

"From the time the volcano became fully active, tre- 
mendous detonations followed one another so rapidly that 
they seemed to merge into a continuous roar, which lasted 
all through Wednesday night, yesterday (Thursday, the 
8th) and up to six-thirty a.m. this morning, the 9th instant. 
These detonations and thunderings were heard as far as Bar- 
bados, one hundred miles distant, as well as in Grenada, Trin- 
idad and the south end of St. Lucia. At twelve-ten p.m. 
on Wednesday, I left in company with several gentlemen 
in a small row-boat to go to Chateaubelair, where we hoped 
to get a better view of the eruption. As we passed Layou, 
the first town on the leeward coast, the smell of sulphur- 
etted hydrogen was very perceptible. Before we got half 
way on our journey, a vast column of steam, smoke and 
ashes ascended to a prodigious elevation. The majestic 
body of curling vapor was sublime beyond imagination. 
We were about eight miles from the crater as the crow 



250 THE SOUFKIEBE OF ST. YINCENT 

flies, and the top of the enormous column, eight miles off, 
reached higher than one-fourth of the segment of the 
circle. I judged that the awful pillar was fully eight miles 
in height. We were rapidly proceeding to our point of 
observation, when an immense cloud, dark, dense and 
apparently thick with volcanic material, descended over 
our pathway, impeding our progress and warning us to 
jDroceed no farther. This mighty bank of sulphurous 
vapor and smoke assumed at one time the shape of a gigan- 
tic promontory, then of a collection of twirling, revolving 
cloud-whorls, turning with rapid velocity, now assuming 
the shape of gigantic cauliflowers, then efflorescing into 
beautiful flower-shapes, some dark, some effulgent, others 
pearly white, and all brilliantly illuminated by electric 
flashes. Darkness, however, soon fell upon us. The sul- 
phurous air was laden with fine dust that fell thickly upon 
and around us, discoloring the sea ; a black rain began to 
fall, followed by another rain of favilla, lapilli and scoriae. 
The electric flashes were marvellously rapid in their mo- 
tions and numerous beyond all computation. These, with 
the thundering noise of the mountain, mingled with the 
dismal roar of the lava, the shocks of earthquake, the falling 
of stones, the enormous quantity of material ejected from 
the belching craters, producing a darkness as dense as a 
starless midnight, the plutonic energy of the mountain 
growing greater and greater every moment, combined to 
make up a scene of horrors. It was after five o'clock when 
we returned to Kingstowu, cowed and impressed by the 
weirdness of the scene we had witnessed, and covered with 



THE SOUFKIEKE OF ST. VINCENT 251 

the still thickly falling gray dust. . . . The awful scene 
was again renewed yesterday (Thursday, the 8th) and again 
to-day. At about eight a.m. the volcano shot out an immense 
volume of material which was carried in a cloud over 
Georgetown and its neighborhood, causing not only great 
alarm, but compelling the people by families to seek shelter 
in other districts." 

The frightful intensity of the Soufriere eruption is made 
plain from this description, which agrees well with the des- 
cription of other observers, and is perhaps the most exact 
of those that have been made public. A just comparison 
with the great eruption of April 30, 1812, an eye-witness 
account of which, reproduced from the London Evening 
Mail of June 30, 1812, appears in the Appendix, is hardly 
possible at this late day, but it is evident that the volcano 
had lost but little, if at all, in vigor during the ninety years 
of its repose. 

On the evening of September 3, immediately following 
my return to Fort-de-France from Vive, we were treated to 
a new form of volcanic excitement. Far out to sea, south- 
ward, vivid flashes of lightning were illuminating a corner 
of the heavens. They followed swiftly upon one another, 
and zig-zagged across broad stretches of a practically cloud- 
less sky. We wondered if it could be the Soufriere of St. 
Vincent again in eruption. That volcano, unlike Pelee, 
had practically died down, and for weeks past had barely 
given signs of a life within it. Visiting parties had 
wandered over its craters and descended quite to the edge 
of the water that again filled the crateral hollows. There 



252 THE SOUFKIEKE OF ST. YINCENT 

was little to tell that an impressive activity had but re- 
cently ceased. We were distant in direct line nearly 
ninety miles from the Soufriere, and it hardly seemed pos- 
sible that the brilliant flashes could have come from that 
distance ; but if not from there, whence ? As the evening 
advanced, the flashes became more and more brilliant, and 
their localization to a very limited area of the sky left no 
further doubt that the monster of St. Vincent was again in 
eruption. My windows in the Hotel Ivanes opened out 
upon this spot, and gave a splendid position whence to view 
the display. Directly in line, but in the oj:)posite direc- 
tion, was the darkened mass of Mont Pelee. The spectacle 
was both terrifying and impressive. From the Diamant 
and the southern part of the island the great glow of the 
eruption was plainly seen, but from Fort-de-France, up till 
one o'clock of the following morning, only the lightning 
flashes were visible, and these were brilliant. To about each 
twelve or fifteen Pelee responded with one blinding flash, 
so intense as to seem to open the heavens. A green sky 
appeared in the flash, and for a fraction of time, consider- 
ably longer than any I had ever experienced with ordinary 
lightning, the eye was paralyzed and saw nothing. 

This extraordinary spectacle, a contest in heaven, as it 
were, between two titans, continued almost uninterruptedly 
for three hours and more, Pelee gradually increasing the 
number of her responding flashes. Shortly after one o'clock 
a great red light in -the south announced the culmination, 
and the Soufriere had released itself of the energies that 
had been stored within. The eruption was seemingly more 



THE SOUFEIEEB OF ST. VINCENT 253 

intense than that of May 7, but, moved by anticipatory 
warnings, the government found the opportunity to notify 
the inhabitants of the surrounding districts of their danger 
and to call them into locations of assured security. Up to 
the time of my leaving Martinique there were no casualties 
reported. It is a noteworthy, even if not necessarily sig- 
nificant, fact that this was the first of all the strong erup- 
tions of the Soufriere which followed a big eruption of Mont 
Pelee, the others (such as those of May 6-7 and 19) usually 
preceding by a day or so the nearly concurrent disturbance 
of Martinique. 

Shortly after five o'clock of the morning, the edge of a 
black cloud could be plainly seen advancing upon Marti- 
nique from the south. It was the ash-cloud of the Soufriere, 
which slowly but surely crawled in upon us. By seven 
o'clock it had passed over Fort-de-France, and clung so 
over Mont Pelee that the frightened inhabitants of the city 
thought that their own mountain had been in eruption. At 
eight o'clock the sun was covered, and it remained so until 
nearly three in the afternoon. During all this time a gray 
gloom hung over the city, the heavens being leaden or pur- 
plish in color, but there was nothing approaching true 
darkness. The general sensation was similar to that expe- 
rienced during a total eclipse. White objects on the sea 
loomed up with remarkable brilliancy and stood out sharp 
against the background of blackened sky. The people 
were naturally terrified, and once more the thoroughfares 
were crowded with observers anxious to know their fate. 
The canopy overhead was almost exactly like that coming 



254 THE SOUFKIEKE OF ST. VINCENT 

from Pelee which I had observed in the morning of June 6, 
only that it was less dense and naturally moved much more 
slowly. As on June 6, there was a marked lowering of the 
temperature, and throughout the day a most genial atmos- 
phere was maintained. Some of the inhabitants, endowed 
with a specially acute olfactory sense, claimed to have 
smelled sulphur, but I could detect nothing of this nature. 
There was no fall of ash over the city, and but little over 
any part of the island. , 

While on Pelee in the afternoon preceding the eruption, 
I satisfied myself that volcanic ash was not necessarily a 
triturated product derived by abrasion from blown-out 
larger pieces (cinders or lapilli), and that it leaves the 
bowels of the volcano in the form of fine powder in which 
it floats out to distant parts in the murky cauliflower clouds 
while they are surcharged and in the flotation of the main 
cloud. The propelling power of the ejecting steam-column 
was such that no extensive triturating process could take 
place anywhere within its reach. The particles are mani- 
festly formed by explosive action within the bowels of 
the volcano, and are shot out spasmodically as successive 
eruptions take place within the deep-seated conduits. 
Much of the continuously ejected particles may even be 
formed through direct abrasion by the rising steam-column 
of the side- walls of the crater. This abrading force is at 
times certainly prodigious, and it must produce some dis- 
ruption. 

The quantity of ash thrown out by Pelee, if measured 
alone by what fell upon the island, would not seem to have 



THE SOUFEIEKE OF ST. VINCENT 255 

been very heavy, much less in quantity, indeed, than ash- 
falls that have been associated with minor volcanic erup- 
tions elsewhere. Except in close proximity to the volcano, 
as at Precheur and at Saint Pierre, where a foot or two 
may have accumulated as a result of two or three consecu- 
tive discharges, the ground scraping can generally be meas- 
ured in fractions of an inch. This meagreness of deposit 
is in part accounted for by the height of the ash-cloud, 
which carries the discharge to more distant parts. That the 
quantity of ash contributed to the atmosphere by Mont 
Pelee was in fact very considerable is proved by the mag- 
nificence of the afterglows which followed the setting of the 
sun hundreds of miles beyond the shores of Martinique. 
We observed the red and orange skies, similar to those 
which were associated with the eruption of Krakatao in 
1883, for successive evenings on our return from the island, 
on September 9, in about latitude 26° 30" north and longi- 
tude 68° 30' west (as computed from the midway determi- 
nation of the steamer's position) ; September 10, in latitude 
30° and longitude 69° 30' ; and September 11, in latitude 
33° 45' and longitude 71°. The last position is fourteen 
hundred miles in a direct line from Mont Pelee. Unfortu- 
nately, the evening of September 12 was cloudy, and it was 
impossible to ascertain at that time the further limit of the 
display. Weeks later, however, and well through the month 
of October, I observed the glows, with still fairly brilliant 
coloring, both in New York and Philadelphia. The glows, 
as we noted them, began about twenty minutes after the 
passing of the sun's disk, and acquired their greatest inten- 



256 THE SOUFRIERE OF ST. YINCENT 

sity of coloring, a brilliant orange and yellow, in ten or fif- 
teen minutes after that time, the period between the sun- 
setting and the first luminosity being one of grays and 
blues. Before the intense glow itself appeared the higher 
reaches of the sky, extending to about 70° from the horizon, 
were suffused in pale pink and lilac, which intensified with 
the growth of the glow and became nearly brilliant. I had 
never noted such an extraordinary coloring of the sky be- 
fore, and it appeared every evening, although diminishing 
in intensity as we proceeded northward. The finest display 
was obtained on the 9th, when our vessel was nearly oppo- 
site Jupiter Inlet, on the Florida coast. 23 

It is impossible to say to what extent the Soufriere 
of St. Vincent contributed to the making of these won- 
derful phenomena. The ash-cloud of September 3 and 
4 was certainly a heavy one, and its driftage was north- 
ward, so that there can hardly be a doubt that it contrib- 
uted largely in material to the zone of suspended particles 
that analyzed the sun's rays. I was informed by a resident 
of the island of St. Martin, near St. Thomas, that the red 
afterglows had been almost continuous in the northern 
waters of the Caribbean basin ever since the eruption of 
Mont Pelee on May 8. 



XVIII 

THE VOLCANIC RELATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 

BASIN 

Geographers owe to Karl von Seebach and to Profes- 
sor Eduard Suess, especially the latter, the first clear state- 
ment regarding the structural affinities of the islands 
composing the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and their rela- 
tion to the two continents lying on either side of them. In 
a masterly way Suess has drawn a parallel between the 
orographic lines of the European and American Mediter- 
ranean basins, and shown how the features that are domi- 
nant in the one are made representative in the other. 
In both regions we recognize areas of marked and long- 
existing weakness in the earth's crust, and in which break- 
ages have been progressively taking place and still continue. 
Continental masses have broken sectionally into these areas, 
and their fragments lie in part scattered about as the islands 
of archipelagic seas. Mountain chains have been sundered, 
disrupted and drowned in the forming oceanic trough, but 
their pinnacles also rise at times as islets or ridges from the 
surface of the sea. The Eurafrica that was at one time a 
single continent is now Europe and Africa ; the mountains 
of the Alps-Apennine system that swept continuously into 
Africa and Asia are now segmented and sectioned, and we 
know them in part as the mountains of Sicily, the isles of 
Greece, the Atlas Mountains and the Sierra Ron da of 

17 257 



258 VOLCANIC EELATIONS OF THE CABIBBEAN BASIN 

Spain. Around this vast region of weakness, of bodily 
subsidences, great ridges have been towered up, and it is 
these mountains which are now in part undergoing break- 
age. Professor Suess has shown, and in a way that cannot 
be easily contested, that where these great continental break- 
ages are taking place they are associated with volcanic and 
seismic disturbances, as, indeed, one would be obliged to 
assume on any theory that connects volcanic outputs with 
pressure exerted by an outer crust or shell upon a molten 
interior lying a short distance below it, or holds that vol- 
canic discharges take place along lines of weakness where 
escape of material from the earth's interior is made easy. 

We find in and about the Mediterranean basin the active 
volcanic cones of Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli and Santorin, j 
and the extinct, but hardly less than modern, Castellfullit 
Mountains of Catalonia, Spain, the Euganean Hills of 
northern Italy, the Alban Mountains of central Italy, the 
Tokai and Sator Mountains of the northern Hungarian 
plain, and the loftier summits of the Caucasus, Elbruz and 
Kasbek, dominating a basin that is structurally a continu- I 
ance of the Mediterranean. In all these cases it is found 
that the volcanoes, whether new or old, stand closely by the 
mountain* range whose development or destruction brought 
them into existence, and usually they define the inner or 
concave side of their trend. It was there that the greatest 
pressure was exerted and relief from pressure found. 

It is not now difficult to recognize a broad parallelism 
between the western included waters of the Atlantic basin, 
the Caribbean and Mexican Seas — which may properly be 



YOLCANIC BELATIONS OF THE CAP.IBBEAN BASIN 259 

termed the American Mediterranean — and the two basins 
of the Eurafrican Mediterranean. Both seas lie between 
continents, the American less directly so than the Euro- 
pean. In both the depth of water is strictly oceanic (up- 
ward of twelve thousand feet), and both have lofty moun- 
tains associated with them in some part of their periphery. 
Again, both have their island groups or lines, and the vol- 
canoes that lie close to their shores, whether on them or off 
them. It was a brilliant generalization in geology which 
assumed that the islands of the Antilles were, in the main, 
merely disrupted parts of a once continuous land area, 
whose orographic relief was constituted by one of the main 
lines of South American mountains ; that the Sierra Merida 
of Venzuela, itself a direct continuation of the eastern 
chain, or Cordillera Oriental of the Andes, was formerly 
continued through the peninsula of Cumana into Trinidad 
and the Lesser Antilles, and from there projected into 
Porto Rico, Hayti, Cuba and Jamaica. Since the making 
of these mountains the line has been sundered at different 
points by breakages and subsidences, and elsewhere so 
" drowned" within itself as to leave no trace of a surface 
existence. The fate of the mountain ridge beyond the Blue 
Mountains of Jamaica and the Sierra Maestra of Cuba is 
not known with full certainty, but the system may be as- 
sumed on fairly secure grounds — as indeed the identity in 
lithologic construction almost proves — to be projected in 
drowned ridges to the Central American coast, and thence 
continued into the lofty masses of Honduras and Guate- 
mala as the southeastern expansion of the true continental 



260 VOLCANIC KELATIONS OF THE CABIBBEAN BASIN 

Cordillera — the chain that virgates at, or near, Zempoalte- 
pec, in the State of Oaxaca, and continues northwestward 
as the Sierra Pacifico or Occidental of Mexico. 24 

Whatever may be the exact relations of the low line of 
heights of the Isthmus of Panama and of the higher eleva- 
tions of Costa Rica, it is certain that they have little in 
common either with the main Andes in the south, or with 
the Rocky Mountains in the north, and seemingly they are 
only a secondary or insular ramification which has been 
forced up between bounding lines of pressure, or been left 
standing as a part of a broken arm of the Cordillera. The 
Antillean relations that have been sketched above assume 
as one of their expressions the not improbable eastward ex- 
tension of the ancient Pacific border, perhaps even to a 
position not far removed from the western contour of the 
Lesser Antillean islands as it exists to-day, and touching 
the southern confines of what are now Cuba, Hayti, Porto 
Rico, etc. Beyond this border may have stretched east- 
ward or northeastward, to a long distance, a continental 
area that was largely continuous with South America. 
And for any facts that geology has to show to the contrary, 
this eastward extension of the southern continent may well 
have continued, as has been argued by some geologists, 
quite into the Old World, uniting at least with Africa ; for 
there is good reason to believe that the southern basin of 
the Atlantic Ocean came into existence only at a later day. 

The islands of the Lesser Antilles as we to-day recog- 
nize them are constituted of two groups, an easterly and a 
westerly, which in close position form a crescentic line ex- 



YOLCANIC KELATIONS OF THE CAKIBBEAN BASIN 2G1 

tending from Trinidad to the eastern extremity of Porto 
Rico, or across seventeen degrees of latitude. The outer or 
Atlantic islands, which occupy the convex side of the cres- 
cent, are fundamentally of limestone or conglomerate con- 
struction, joined to more ancient igneous and metamorphosed 
rocks, and are of a continental type, while those of the 
inner side are volcanic, and, counting from their principal 
members, — Saba, St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Eustatius, Redonda, 
Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, 
St. Vincent, Grenada, — about a dozen in number. These 
volcanic islands, which all bear evidences of recent volcanic 
activity and belong to a period of no great geological ac- 
tivity, — perhaps nowhere more ancient than the Middle 
Tertiary, — unquestionably define one of the lines of greatest 
weakness in the Caribbean or Antillean region, and they 
stand implanted upon or adjoined to the old continental 
basement, whose fragmented parts still appear in such re- 
mains at St. Thomas, St. Croix, Auguilla, Antigua, the 
eastern island of Guadeloupe, and part of Barbados, — 
islands of sedimentary construction, and which after their 
subsidence have in part been built up by organic growth 
and volcanic discharges. No more extraordinary series of 
volcanoes is to be found anywhere than that of this inner 
line of islands, which have sometimes been designated the 
Caribbees, and nowhere is a volcanic disposition to be found 
that is more beautifully identified with terrestrial move- 
ments, whether of subsidence or breakage. The Lesser 
Sunda Islands, Japan and the Aleutian Islands alone pre- 
sent parallels. Both on the east and the west, i.e., on the 



262 VOLCANIC KELATIONS OF THE CAEIBBEAN BASIN 

Atlantic and Caribbean sides, the islands rise rapidly from 
deep water — more rapidly on the inner or western side — 
and between each two placed north and south, although 
the interval may not be more than twenty or twenty-five 
miles, or even less, the separating water has in most cases 
a depth of at least three thousand feet, and frequently 
much more. The islands, again, present the extraordinary 
peculiarity of having their highest summits brought to ap- 
proximately equivalent heights, or at least to levels which 
have no marked preeminence ; thus, Saba, which is hardly 
more than a rock rising from a fairly deep sea, is 2000 
feet high; Mount Misery, on St. Kitts, is 4300 feet; 
the Soufriere of Montserrat, 3000 feet; the Soufriere of 
Guadeloupe, 4070 feet ; Diablotin, on Dominica, 4740 feet ; 
Mont Pelee, on Martinique, about 4300 feet ; the Sou- 
friere of St. Lucia, 4000 feet; and the Soufriere of St. 
Vincent, 4050 feet. It is not possible to say at this time 
to what extent these different volcanic masses may be united 
with one another in the trough of the sea, and there form a 
continuous volcanic ridge with elevations of seven thousand 
or eight thousand feet rising out from it. It would seem 
more likely that their connecting bond is the continental 
basin, on whose crest, or along whose fractured parts, the 
volcanoes have been built up. This conception is seemingly 
more in harmony with what we know of the linear dispo- 
sition of volcanoes elsewhere, as, for example, in the penin- 
sular and insular tracts of extreme Asia, the Aleutian Is- 
lands, etc. 

In assuming in the Caribbean and Gulf basins two 



VOLCANIC RELATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN BASIN 263 

great subsiding areas, one is not necessarily forced to the 
assumption that their origin as such dates from the same 
period of time, any more than we accept that the two basins 
of the Mediterranean were necessarily formed contempora- 
neously, or that the eastern basin is of the same age as the 
Black Sea. But they have become isochronic, so far as 
their present dynamics are concerned. They break, squeeze 
and press, and as a resultant, lands are folded up and 
volcanic discharges brought to the surface. There are no 
facts in geology that are more difficult to establish than those 
that are associated with the first appearance or making of 
land-masses and the causes which have brought them into 
existence; and much room for doubt must always be per- 
mitted in the interpretations of the conditions that suggest 
themselves in inquiries of this kind. In the case of the 
Antillean region, however, it may be assumed as fairly well 
established that the singular peninsular extension of the 
United States, the State of Florida, is the resultant of a 
lateral thrust, with upfolding, brought about by the sub- 
sidence or deepening of the Gulf Basin ; and one may 
accept with nearly equal certainty a like or correlative ex- 
planation for the existence of the peninsula of Yucatan. 
We may, indeed, assume with De Montessus the hypothesis 
that the comparatively recent upheaval of parts of the 
Lesser Antilles is in itself merely the expression of an up- 
thrust between two subsiding basins — the Atlantic on one 
side and the Caribbean on the other. 25 

Were we to seek for an absolutely homologic equivalent 
of the American Mediterranean basins in the Mediterranean 



264 VOLCANIC RELATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN BASIN 

region of Eurafrica, it would be impossible to find it, since 
the continental relations of the two regions are not wholly 
alike, nor are the mountain parts similarly placed. But it 
is immaterial how the individual parts are placed geographi- 
cally or how they are interrelated — their geologic aspect or 
Antlitz is fundamentally the same. M. Michel Levy has 
latterly made a comparison between the two regions, and has 
assumed a homologic equivalent between the Caribbean and 
the Gulf basins on one side and the iEgean and Black Seas 
on the other — the Black and Gulf seas being the included 
basins in the two cases, the Dardanelles, Bosporus and the 
Strait of Yucatan the connecting waters, and the volcanic 
Caribbees and the Candian islands the concave outer rim 
marking the breakage of the main basins. This comparison 
is interesting as it recognizes an existing homology, but it 
can hardly replace the broader comparison which is forced 
upon us by the larger regions of which the Euxine-iEgean 
is merely a part.* 

The boundaries of the region of weakness that is included 
within or touched by the Caribbean-Gulf basins may be 
roughly drawn from the western coast of Mexico to the 
Lesser Antilles, or over an east-and-west extent of thirty- 
six degrees of longitude, and from the northern parts of 
South America to Porto Rico and the lower parts of the 
Mississippi Valley. Practically the whole of Central 
America is included in this region, whose area may be 
approximately put at twice that which is represented in the 

* Revue Cenerale des Sciences, June, 1902. 



YOLCANIC BELATIONS OF THE CAEIBBEAN BASIN 265 

Mediterranean region of Europe. Nearly the whole of this 
tract, and much of the region that immediately adjoins it, 
is characterized by violent seismic and volcanic disturb- 
ances, and probably no region of the globe, with the ex- 
ception of that of the Molucca Seas, has been witness to 
greater catastrophic events and to a grander concentration 
of volcanic figures than this one. One has only to recite a 
few of the more salient events of modern date in the course 
of these phenomena to properly punctuate the history of 
this region : the eruption of Jorullo, in Mexico, in 1759 ; 
the destruction, by earthquake, in 1773 of the city of Gua- 
temala (Antigua) ; the formation of the volcano of Izalco, in 
Salvador, in 1793 ; the earthquake of Caracas, in 1812 ; the 
eruption, in April, 1812, of the Soufriere of St. Vincent; 
the catastrophic eruption in 1835 of Coseguina, in Nicaragua 
— one of the most violent eruptions recorded in history ; the 
destruction by earthquake of Cartago, in Costa Rica, in 
1841 ; and the rapidly following events of this year : 
January 16, destruction by earthquake of Chilpancingo, in 
Mexico ; April 18, destruction by earthquake of Quezalte- 
nango (and other towns), in Guatemala ; and May, the erup- 
tions of the Soufriere and Mont Pelee, in St. Vincent and 
Martinique. 

There is perhaps nothing that so clearly establishes the 
unity of the Gulf- Caribbean region as a region of far- 
reaching instability as the broad range of its seismic and 
volcanic phenomena and the correspondent relations which 
they teach. No succession of events could present this fact 
more lucidly than the events of the early part of this year, 



266 VOLCANIC EELATIONS OF THE CAEIBBEAN BASIN 

1902, when disturbances of one kind or another were de- 
veloped over a linear area of nearly or quite two thousand 
five hundred miles, extending from Colima, in Mexico, on 
the west, to Martinique on the east. The areal distribution 
of these occurrences is, indeed, so vast that one is almost 
prompted to deny the existence of any true relation binding 
them together ; but the evidence obtained from similarly 
concurrent events in former periods of time leaves no room 
for doubt that the association, which naturally fastens itself 
upon the mind, does in fact exist. The synchronism in the 
time periods of the eruptions of the* Soufriere of St. Vincent 
and Mont Pelee, as developed in their recent activities, is 
too patent to permit of any question being raised as to their 
relation to a common disturbing cause ; and perhaps not 
before has such a close relation been recorded. The cata- 
clysm of May 8, in Martinique, was preceded by one day by 
the main eruption of the Soufriere, which, however, con- 
tinued in nearly full activity for twenty-four hours after- 
wards ; the Pelee eruption of the 20th of the same month 
was preceded, with a nearly equal time interval, by a 
second eruption of the Soufriere ; while the second death- 
dealing eruption of Pelee on August 30 was followed four 
days later, and after an established period of quiescence, by 
what seems to have been the most violent of all the recent 
eruptions of the Soufriere, on September 3-4. 

A careful inquiry and examination made at several of 
the other volcanic islands lying in the chain of the Lesser 
Antilles, St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, 
and St. Kitts, all of which have soufrieres or craterlets 



VOLCANIC RELATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN BASIN 267 

emitting sulphurous or heated vapors, establishes the in- 
teresting fact that their points of activity were not even to 
the slightest degree influenced by the eruptions of early 
May — the crateral bodies of water, whether standing or 
boiling, retaining their old temperatures, and giving out 
neither more nor less of vapor. This condition is made to 
appear the more surprising in the case of the Soufriere of 
St. Lucia, an island that stands half-way between Mar- 
tinique and St. Vincent. The island thus appears side- 
tracked, so far as the existence of any connecting fissure 
may be postulated. It should be noted, however, that the 
position of the St. Lucia Soufriere is not longitudinally 
concurrent with the positions of Pelee and the Soufriere 
of St. Vincent, lying considerably to the eastward. And 
it is remarkable, or at least noteworthy, that just westward 
of this island, seven to ten miles beyond the coast, marked 
oceanic disturbances, taking place at the time of the 
great land eruptions, were observed, and were considered 
to point to true eruptions having their origin on the sea- 
bottom. 

As in 1812, the great May, 1902, eruption of the 
Soufriere was preceded by violent seismic disturbances in 
the northern part of South America, particularly ac- 
centuated in Colombia and Venezuela, and in closer chro- 
nologic harmony by the great earthquake which on April 
18 destroyed the city of Quezaltenango, in Guatemala — 
seemingly the most destructive earthquake in the western 
hemisphere since the one which in 1812 wrecked Caracas. 
So close, indeed., is this association, and so intimately cor- 



268 YOLCANIC BELATIONS OF THE CABIBBEAN BASIN 

related appear to be the volcanic and seismic phenomena of 
the vast Caribbean region, that Professor Milne has ventured 
the suggestion that it was this earthquake, or rather its 
prophetic force, which brought about the eruption of Pelee. 
However possible or impossible it may be to prove the cor- 
rectness of this view, it is certainly very interesting and 
suggestive.* 

As regards the intensity of the volcanic and seismic 
conditions of the Gulf-Caribbean region, it has frequently 
been asserted by geologists and others that it is rapidly on 
the decline, and that we could look to a comparatively near 
period when a full or nearly full condition of stability 
would be established. That there has been a marked dimi- 
nution in these phenomena since a prehistoric period, when 
the volcanoes were first formed, or for a long period after 
their formation, does not, it seems to me, admit of doubt ; 
but I fail to find the evidence that points to any recent de- 
feasance of power or to that near future of quiet repose 
which is assumed to follow dormancy. In various papers 
discussing the relative merits of the two interoceanic canal 
routes, Nicaragua and Panama, I have sought to point out 
the fallacy of the notion that a half century or more in the 

* A violent earthquake with sharp detonations was noted at Ca- 
riipano, on the Venezuelan coast, on the night of August 30, at about 
nine o'clock. It is an interesting fact that almost coincidentally with 
the construction of the volcanic cone in the Lake of Ilopango, in Sal- 
vador, there were violent seismic disturbances, with a southwest to 
northeast movement, in the Vuelta-Abajo district of Cuba (January 
22-23, 1880). 



VOLCANIC RELATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN BASIN 269 

history of an active or semi-active volcano serves as a 
proper guide to the elucidation of the possibilities of such 
volcano or that it is necessarily in any way a measure of 
the volcano's potential energy. It seemed to me far more 
probable, seeing that we had in the 1835 eruption of 
Coseguina one of the greatest paroxysms of the earth's 
history, that the volcanic and seismic phenomena of at least 
a part of the Caribbean region gave indications of an in- 
crease rather than of a decrease of power, and I pointed 
out the bearing of this condition on the problem of canal 
construction. Since the appearance of these papers, the 
world has been startled by the destruction of Chilpancingo, 
on January 16 ; the destruction of Quezaltenango, on April 
18 ; the eruption of the Soufriere on May 7 ; and the 
death-dealing eruptions (besides other eruptions of almost 
equal intensity, May 20, June 6, July 9) of Pelee on May 
8 and August 30. These, together with the long-continued 
eruptions of Colima, in Mexico, now extending through a 
period of ten years, appear to me to be part of one and the 
same general disturbance in a localized, even though vast, 
area of the earth's crust. As to the future, and what par- 
ticularly concerns the forces of the Lesser Antilles, it is 
difficult to postulate ; but there does not appear to me any 
good reason for assuming that we are about to enter upon a 
condition of peace. Rather should I believe that we may 
be facing a period of long-continued, even if interrupted, 
activity ; and that we may even be nearing a period whose 
distinguishing characteristics may be cataclysmic. The 
Caribbean basin is recognizably one of breakage, and its 



270 VOLCANIC KELATIONS OF THE CABIBBEAN BASIN 

phenomena can easily be those that result from this con- 
dition.* 

* Since the above was written comes the intelligence of renewed 
outbreaks (October 15-16) of the Soufriere and of the violent erup- 
tion of the volcano of Santa Maria, or of a minor cone near by, in 
Guatemala, standing close to the field of Quezaltenango. A loss of 
life of five thousand is reported — a number that may possibly be 
exaggerated. 




SAINT PIERRE AND MONT PELEE IN 1766 



XIX 
THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 

The general characteristics of the great eruption of 
May 8 may be briefly summed up as follows : For two 
weeks and more prior to the event Pelee had been in rap- 
idly increasing activity, emitting clouds of ashes and sul- 
phurous vapors, and opening its crater on the southwestern 
flank of the mountain (in the ancient basin of the Etang 
Sec) on April 25. At this time the sulphur vapors had 
accumulated in such quantity in Saint Pierre that respira- 
tion was made difficult, and animals dropped dead in the 
streets of the city. On May 2 the ashes had so far ob- 
scured the roads as to compel a cessation of traffic, and 
three days later, shortly after noon on May 5, occurred the 
discharge of the avalanche of boiling mud which over- 
whelmed the Usine Guerin. This stream, travelling with 
express-train velocity, issued from the basin of the Etang 
Sec, and followed down the course of the Riviere Blanche. 
From this time up to the 8th, during which interval torrents 
of volcanic water were deluging and destroying towns and 
villages, — Precheur, Basse-Pointe, etc., — the unrest of the 
volcano was rapidly travelling to a climax, and on the morn- 
ing of the fatal day, without particularly active symptoms 
presaging the storm, the blow fell with almost lightning-like 
swiftness. The issuing explosive and exploded cloud left 
the crater at almost exactly eight o'clock, and at two min- 

271 



272 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

utes after eight the destruction of the city had been accom- 
plished. Saint Pierre fell before a hot tornadic blast, whose 
sweep could not have been less than from one to two miles 
an hour, — -perhaps much more, — tumbled into ruins, and 
was in greater part consumed by an immediately following 
conflagration. A not particularly heavy fall of ashes and 
lapilli came close upon the wake of the destroying blast, 
and almost at the same time a fall of rain, whose duration 
appears to have been less than an hour. 

In this destruction, with few exceptions, all the inhabi- 
tants were annihilated, and all the evidence points to the 
conclusion that in by far the greater number of cases death 
was either very swift or almost instantaneous. Some few 
lingered on, and two appear to have entirely survived. 
Death may have been due to a number of causes, directly 
related to the crushing of a city under the force of a vio- 
lent hot tornadic blast, but primarily it appears to have 
been the result of scorching and asphyxiation (the inhala- 
tion of an extremely heated vaporous [or gaseous] atmos- 
phere). The measure of the work done by electric dis- 
charges has not yet been clearly determined. Seemingly 
not less than thirty thousand lives were lost in this catas- 
trophe, representing the entire population of Saint Pierre 
and the people of a number of adjoining faubourgs and set- 
tlements, the zone of most destructive devastation being- 
measured on the ocean front by the interval which sepa- 
rates the anse immediately north of Carbet and Sainte- 
Philomene. In the middle line or zone of the sector of 
devastation the destruction, following the area of concen- 



THE PHENOMENA OP THE EEUPTION 273 

trated force, is necessarily most complete. In it the houses 
have been most thoroughly wrecked — the human bodies 
most thoroughly annihilated. Few of the corpses showed 
any vestige of clothing covering the body ; and none 
directly within this zone, excepting the prisoner Ciparis 
and a certain Leandre, appear to have been so little 
burned as to be able to survive their wounds. Laterally to 
this zone of greatest destruction the force of annihilation 
was a gradually decreasing one, to the end of permitting 
houses to stand and the corpses to retain their covering; 
and in the further exterior, to inflict wounds of a purely 
scorching nature which were not necessarily fatal or even 
of consequence. 

The zone of absolute destruction is a comparatively 
small one, and probably does not much exceed eight or nine 
square miles ; but considerably beyond it extends a region 
of minor devastation, over which the vegetation has in great 
measure been destroyed, temporarily at least, by singeing, 
cindering, and the weight of fallen ashes. The explosion 
of May 8, while being responsible for the destruction of the 
life of Saint Pierre and of its associated settlements, is only 
in part responsible for the ruined aspect of the city as we 
now see it ; the eruption of May 20, which was perhaps as 
forceful as the one that preceded it by twelve days, gave 
new characteristics to the ruined city, and the condition of 
orientation which it to-day presents. 

Whatever seismic movements may have accompanied or 
preceded the great catastrophe, it is certain that, if they 
existed at all, they must have been of very minor conse- 

18 



274 THE PHENOMENA OE THE EEUPTION 

quence, otherwise some record beyond a passing notice 
would have been made of them in the Saint Pierre jour- 
nals. And it is a fact that no earthquake shock was noted 
at Fort-de-France on the morning of the 8th, nor, indeed, 
at any time previous to August 24, six days before the 
second death -dealing eruption of Mont Pelee. In this 
negative aspect the eruptions of Pelee seem to differ from 
those of the Soufriere of St. Vincent. The barometric 
records kept at Saint Pierre indicate a remarkable atmos- 
pheric stability during several days preceding the storm, 
the mercury column registering regularly, up to and in- 
clusive of the 7th of May, seven hundred and sixty-two 
millimetres, only once falling to seven hundred and sixty- 
one ; it may be that early on the 8th, as the sudden move- 
ment of the needle in M. Clerc's aneroid possibly indicates, 
there was a sudden or marked fall, but of this we have no 
record ; nor is any abrupt change, except that represented 
by a momentary depression of three millimetres, indicated 
in the registry of the Meteorological Observatory of Fort- 
de-France. It is certain that a heavy counter-gust swept 
to the volcano immediately after the outburst, probably 
drawn to the mountain by a condition of partial vacuum 
which followed the displacements in the atmosphere due 
to the successive explosions — the condition that in St. 
Vincent, during the Soufriere eruption, permitted windows 
to be smashed in by outflowing boulders and lapilli on the 
side turned away from the volcano. 

As a marked negative feature of the Pelee eruptions is 
the absence of lava-flow, a characteristic which also marked 



w □ 





THE PHENOMENA OF THE EBUPTION 275 

the earlier eruptions of 1851 and 1762. Yet the early 
history of the volcano plainly shows that the prehistoric 
eruptions were largely accompanied by extravasation of 
flowing magma, which in their later stages or periods was 
mainly andesitic in character. That a molten magma now 
rises well into the throat of the volcano is indisputably 
proven by the ejected pumiceous particles that are so 
freely ejected and by much of the exploded glassy ash, as 
well as by the lavseform bombs that lie about in fairly 
large numbers. The fact that this contained lava was not 
thrust out as a flowing sheet from the mouth of Pelee can 
hardly be taken, in a comparative study, as a measure of 
the force of the volcano, as manifestly the power to lift will 
be largely determined by the weight or height of the column 
to be lifted ; and our present geological knowledge does not 
permit us to state this for Pelee or for any other volcano. 

It hardly admits of a doubt that several of the later 
paroxysmal eruptions, those of May 20, 26, June 6, July 9 
and August 30, for example, shared the general character- 
istics of the one of May 8, or were similarly constructed. 
The personal observations of the officers of the Pouyer- 
Quertier made on the eruption of the second date, of Drs. 
Flett and Tempest Anderson on that of the fourth, and my 
own on the fifth, point clearly to this conclusion. The 
main phenomena were either in whole or in part the same. 
My investigations and inquiries made on August 30 and 
September 1, immediately before and after the issuance 
of the tornadic blast which annihilated or invaded Morne 
Rouge, Ajoupa-Bouillon, Morne Capot, Morne Balai and 



276 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

the heights of Bourdon, and swept another two thousand of 
Martinique's inhabitants from existence, confirm me in the 
belief that the principal agent in this later eruption, and not 
unlikely also in the earlier ones, was superheated exploded 
steam, charged in part with particles of incandescent or 
glowing matter. To the showering of the latter upon the 
combustible substances of Morne Rouge was due the partial 
destruction by conflagration of that city. Whatever acces- 
sory gases, besides sulphurous (or sulphuretted-hydrogen?), 
may have assisted in the work of asphyxiation or otherwise 
killing, has not been ascertained, nor is it known that there 
were any such. The simple condition of superheating and 
steaming can probably sufficiently explain all the cases of 
asphyxiation and scorching, or of death where it was not 
brought about through contact with burning or incandescent 
particles, electric strokes, crumbling walls, and the violence 
of a fully sweeping tornado. The inhaling of an atmos- 
phere of the intense heat of many hundreds of degrees, in 
places with a temperature possibly much exceeding one 
thousand degrees, means practically almost instantaneous 
death, and that pronounced heating of the air-passages and 
excoriation of the lining membrane of the throat and bron- 
chial tubes which were associated with the pitiful cries for 
water and the sensation of no air to breathe. 

The geologist will never be wholly certain as regards the 
precipitating cause of the catastrophe — or more broadly, of 
the series of catastrophic events of which the eruptions of 
Mont Pelee formed only a part. In the chapter on " The 
Volcanic Relations of the Caribbean Basin," I have at- 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 277 

tempted, following Suess and others, to point out the genetic 
connection of the different island groups of that region, and 
their relation to a past orographic unit and continental 
disruption. The numerous disturbing incidents, whether 
volcanic or seismic, that have latterly crowded themselves 
into the history of this zone or region — as, indeed, they had 
already done two or three times before in a period of a hun- 
dred years — together with the unquestionably interrelated 
manifestations that developed as a part of the synchronic 
movement, lead one to believe that all of these disturbances 
have a common origin, whose initiative is to be found in a 
readjustment of the floor of the Caribbean Basin. This 
broad zone of weakness, developed along the northern 
confines of the South American continent, and between the 
fragmented parts of the ancient Andes (Lesser Antilles) on 
the east and the Pacific coast of southern Mexico on the 
west, including within its area the greater part of Central 
America and the tracts of Mexico lying south of the plateau 
(whose permanency as a " region of concussion" has latterly 
been well shown by Deckert in his paper : " Die Erdbeben- 
herde und SchiXttergebiete von Nbrd-Amerika" *), is seem- 
ingly still in a condition of continuous oscillation, and doubt- 
less of much fracturing and reacting subsidence. Along its 
edges of greatest weakness, and where relief from strain can 
most easily be had, do we necessarily seek for the greatest 
development of volcanic activities. It is also there that, on 
any theory that associates volcanic phenomena with the 

* Zeitschrift Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde, Berlin, 1902, pp. 367-389. 



278 THE PHENOMENA OP THE EEUPTION 

accession of oceanic waters to seats of potential magmatic 
force within the earth's interior, we should expect to meet 
with violent or paroxysmal outbursts. 

Tlie Force of the Explosion. — It is hardly possible, ex- 
cept in a very indeterminate way, to establish a comparison 
between the explosive force which marked the eruption of 
May 8 and that of other great eruptions whose histories are 
fairly well known to us. If the measure of this force is to be 
read merely from the mechanical work of volcanic decapi- 
tation and evisceration, in the amount of solid material that 
was thrown out, in the height of projection of some of this 
material, and the concussions to which these projections 
gave rise, then the eruption of Pelee stands probably far 
down in the scale of volcanic catastrophism, being surpassed 
by Papandayang (1772), Asamayama (1783), Skaptar Jokull 
(1783), Tomboro (1815), Coseguina (1835), Krakatao (1883), 
Tarawera (1886), Bandai-San (1888), and perhaps even by 
many of the eruptions of Vesuvius, Etna, and Mauna-Loa. 
The erupted material of Pelee was not particularly large, 
and probably even considerably less than that thrown out 
by the Soufriere on the day preceding. The volcano had 
been well opened nearly two weeks in advance of the cata- 
clysm, on April 25, and the crater had been throwing out 
great quantities of ash and lapilli almost unremittingly 
since that date. At the moment of the catastrophe, it 
would seem that no very great part of the mountain was 
raised or hurled into the air. A comparison of ancient and 
modern landmarks shows unmistakably that whatever 
change was imposed upon the summit or general contours 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 279 

of the mountain, this change did not affect the broad aspect 
either of the slopes or of the former crest-line, nearly all 
the old topographic features having been retained, although 
emphasized in part. It is not unlikely that in this erup- 
tion some considerable portion of the periphery or floor of 
the crater was actually blown out, the fragments coming 
from the destruction of which may have constituted the 
gerbe de rochers which has been described by M. Thierry 
( Comptes Rendus, July 7, 1902, p. 71) and others as having 
been projected several hundred feet above the crest of the 
volcano. 

However easily one may force a comparison between the 
expended force of different eruptions, based upon the value of 
their mechanical effects, a study of correlative results shows 
that this form of comparison is not wholly free from error, 
and may lead to serious misconceptions. Thus, comparing 
the eruption of Mont Pelee with that of the Bandai-San, 
in 1888, we know that the amount of solid matter thrown 
out by the former was, indeed, very small. The discharge 
of the latter, on the other hand, has been assumed by Pro- 
fessors Sekiya and Kikuchi in their official report to have 
been one billion five hundred and eighty-seven million cubic 
yards, distributed over twenty-seven square miles of surface 
(Journal College of Science, Imperial University of Japan, 
III, 1890, pp. 91 et seq.)* Yet despite this vast dislocation 



* This quantity (1.20 cubic kilometres) is just one-fifteenth of that 
which has been assumed to represent the outthrow of Krakatao in 
1883 (4.3 cubic miles), and hardly more than one-hundredth (!) of 



280 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

and the great tornadic tempest to which it gave rise — a tor- 
nado moving with a velocity assumed to have been not less 
than ninety miles an hour — the damage wrought, estimated by 
the Pelee standard, was (although very great in itself) fairly 
insignificant. Only one hundred and sixty-six houses were 
destroyed, completely or partially, and less than five hun- 
dred (four hundred and sixty-one) lives lost. Nor, indeed, 
were the " frightful" detonations that accompanied the 
explosion heard at any great distance, — to windward, not 
more than thirty miles. 

The force of a blast such as that which, in the case of 
Mont Pelee, annihilated a compactly built city along a 
direct line of nearly or quite two miles can hardly be esti- 
mated. Its measure can well be taken from the excess or 
non-development of the ordinarily associated volcanic phe- 
nomena, as these seemingly gave way to a form of erup- 
tivity whose force-centre lay in a different path. It is 
reasonable to assume that had Pelee been a sealed mountain 
up to the time of its first great eruption, the mechanical 
effects of disruption might have presented themselves on a 
scale vastly more imposing than that on which they were 
actually found. Professor Judd, reviewing the character- 
istics of the Krakatao eruption, — which he assumes to have 
been developed on a " much smaller scale than several other 
outbursts which have occurred in historic times," — asserts 



what (28.6 cubic miles) Yerbeek believes must have been blown out 
by Tomboro in 1815. — Eoyal Society Eeport on Krakatao Eruption, 
p. 439. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 281 

that "in the terrible character of the sudden explosions 
which gave rise to such vast sea- and air-waves on the 
morning of the 27th of August, the eruption of Krakatao 
appears to have no parallel among the records of volcanic 
activity." We may say in the same way of Pelee, that in 
the intensity and swiftness of its death-dealing blast, the 
vast disturbance caused by it in the magnetic field, and the 
extraordinary brilliancy and remarkable character of its 
electric phenomena, the eruptions of May 8 and of later date 
stand unique in the records of volcanic manifestations. 

Distribution of the Products of Eruption. — It has 
already been stated that the eruption of May 8, as well as 
the eruptions of later date, were entirely free of open lava- 
flows, and that the solid products of eruption consisted ex- 
clusively of mud-materials, lava-bombs, boulders, lapilli, 
pumice and ash. None of the more massive ejecta were 
thrown to any great distance from the volcano's mouth. 
Their location, except where subsequently disturbed, is 
almost exclusively on the upper slopes of the mountain, at 
distances usually within close range of the summit ; and 
those of larger size, measuring several feet in diameter or 
very much more, where occupying a more distant position, 
have in most cases undergone secondary transportation by 
rolling down the nearly unobstructed slopes. When nearly 
opposite the lower lip of the crater on August 24, just in ad- 
vance of a fairly powerful eruption, I was witness to giant 
boulders or rock-masses sweeping down the exterior slope of 
the great fragmental cone. Some of these, I believe, could 
not have been less than twenty or thirty feet across — per- 



282 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

haps even considerably more. Where rolling over an open 
or unobstructed course the distance covered was fairly 
great, perhaps reaching to two or three miles. The rising 
plane that forms the parting between the Rivieres Blanche 
and Seche, and over which swept the mud-flow of May 5, 
was, when I passed it on September 6, a week after the 
eruption of August 30, checkered with great boulder-masses, 
some of them of very large size, and bearing testimony to 
an extraordinary propulsive force resident in the volcano. 
For, whether rolled to their present positions or directly 
thrown to them, they must have risen through the volcanic 
chimney. Doubtless, some of these ejected rock-boulders 
were merely fragments of the united or fused cindered 
masses that in part construct the summit of the eruptive 
cone ; but others were as unquestionably true ejected 
masses that had been hurled over the crest, just as they 
were at the time of the eruption of May 8. 

When I first reached the rim of the crater on June 1, 
at a time when the caldron was swirling with steam and 
vapor, it seemed to me and to my associates that a part of 
the central fragmental mass (cone of activity) was con- 
structed of a vertical wall, and so this feature is represented 
in an article published by me in McClure's Magazine 
(August, 1902), and illustrated by that very accurate art- 
student of nature, George Varian. The feature was a 
puzzling one, and, unfortunately, it could only be seen in 
snatches through rifts in the enveloping clouds. When 
opposite the cone on the southwest side on August 24, as I 
have elsewhere noted, two giant " horns" — one vertical and 




Expl. Heilprin 



Underwood & Underwood, Stereos. Photo., New York, Copyright, 1902 
A COCOANUT-GATHERER— ASSIER 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 283 

the other horizontal (but projecting) — protruded over the 
summit of the cone, appearing perfectly black ; but even 
with a powerful glass their characteristics could not be de- 
termined. Professor Lacroix manifestly saw something of 
the same kind at a later day, for in a report published in 
the Comptes Rendus (October 27, 1902) he says that the 
cone does not appear to be constructed entirely of ejected 
material, but to be formed in part of very pointed and ver- 
tical-sided needles, which recalled the front of the andesitic 
flows of Santorin. Can we here be dealing with a vertical 
upthrow and partial overflow of flowing lava? Lacroix, 
indeed, hazards the assumption that we may have before us 
the construction of a cumulo-volcano.* 

Of the ejected material of the volcano that was thrown 
to a greater distance than five or ten miles there do not 

* More recently (Comptes Rendus, November 10) Lacroix has 
declared that the cone is solid, without central orifice, and that the 
normal lofty pennant does not issue from its summit, but from the 
sides and from the interval which separates the cone from the bound- 
ing outer wall of the crater. This is an interesting observation, and 
shows, if it is accurate, that the cone has undergone material change 
since August 24. At that time, as my photographs plainly prove, the 
pennant was rising centrally from a truncated cone, whose outer walls 
were mainly of a fragmental character. Only at intervals before the 
eruption which we witnessed later in the day was it supported by the 
side-columns of steam. Yet I suspected at the time, from the way 
in which the smoke-column ascended, that the chimney must have 
been blocked, which prevented a free and open flow. It is not un- 
likely that a blocking of this kind frequently takes place, and is 
accessory to some of the paroxysmal outbursts which distinguish 
volcanoes of this class. 



284 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

appear to have been many fragments that were larger than 
an egg ; nearly everything was, indeed, very much smaller 
— particles measuring an inch or less. The finer ash was, 
of course, drifted off to great distances. Practically the 
whole of Martinique received some sort of a deposit. Per- 
haps the farthest distance at which the drifting ash of Mont 
Pelee has been noted in the lower regions is two hundred to 
three hundred miles, although there can be no question that 
the areal distribution is much more extensive than would 
seem to be indicated by these limits. The inquiry in this 
field is necessarily complicated by the discharges from the 
Soufriere of St. Vincent, whose driftage preceded that (of 
the main eruption of Pelee) by one day, and by the number 
of discharges which preceded the main incident. Whether 
applying either to the Pelee or the Soufriere it is interesting 
to note that : on May 8, six hundred and sixty miles east 
by south of Pelee, in latitude 13° 22' N., and longitude 49° 
50' W., a falling dust was noted by the barque Beechwood, 
bound from Salaverry to New York. 

On May 8, two-thirty a.m., the barque Jupiter, from 
Cape Town, reported receiving dust at a distance of nine 
hundred and thirty miles east-southeast of St. Vincent 
(Meteorological Office Pilot Chart, November). This seems 
to be the farthest distance of driftage on the sea which has 
been observed, and if the materials are referable to the great 
eruptions, then manifestly they are part of the eruptions of 
the Soufriere and not of Pelee. The time period would 
then indicate a velocity of travel of nearly sixty miles an 
hour, nearly treble that which (as will be seen farther on) 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 285 

may be assumed in the passage of the upper dust-strata 
which carried with them the phenomena of the afterglows. 
Other observations on falling dust are contained in the 
logs of the steamship Coya, bound from Montevideo to New 
York (fall noted in the evening of May 7, ten-thirty o'clock 
—11° 23' N., longitude 57° 52' W., two hundred and fifty 
miles east-southeast of St. Vincent) ; the barque Eleanor 
M. Williams, from Conetable Island to New York (fall, 
May 8, three to eight p.m., in latitude 14° N., longitude 
57° W., two hundred and fifty miles east of Martinique) ; 
the steamer Porto Rico, on June 7, lying at anchor near 
Ponce ; and ship Monrovia, from Rio de Janeiro (at four 
p.m. of the 8th, two hundred and forty miles southeast of 
Barbados). It is interesting to note that nearly all the 
long-distance observations were made on the windward 
side of the islands, which would seem to show that the 
greater part of the dust was projected through the zone 
of the trade-winds, and carried eastwardly in the path of 
the alternating (or " anti-trade") winds. The royal mail 
steamer La Plata [Nature, June 26, p. 203) notes falling- 
dust on May 9, six p.m., one hundred miles west of St. 
Lucia. 

The Steam- (Ash-) Cloud. — This appears white, gray, 
yellow, reddish, brown and almost black, depending upon 
the quantity of ashes with which it is encumbered, the pure 
white indicating a nearly pure steam-cloud. When the 
volcano is in moderate activity the panache or pennant rises 
in gentle outflowing sweeps, little different from the curling 
smoke of high chimneys. Even in this condition the vis- 



286 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

ible part may rise to a mile or two above the crest of the 
volcano. In a more violent or paroxysmal stage the ex- 
tended vapor boils up or out with great force, disengages 
itself in rapidly enveloping puffs and rolls, and constructs 
the well-known cauliflower form of clouds. These either 
rise straight up, looking as though they had been shot out 
of a cannon's mouth, or spiral about in corkscrew fashion, 
and give the appearance of being sucked into a central 
vortex. It is then that the volcano appears in all its full 
majesty — supremely powerful and terrifying. I did not 
see anything that could properly be said to look like the 
" pine-cloud" of Vesuvius. 

The ascensive force of the steam-column is very great, 
and from a number of eye-measurements that were made at 
different points I should say that it frequently mounts up 
to three or four and five miles. On our descent from the 
mountain in the afternoon of August 30, about four and a 
half hours before the explosion of that date, there was a 
burst which seemed to me to carry the steam-column, nar- 
rowed somewhat like a Lombardy poplar, to a height of not 
less than six or seven miles. Prodigious though this may 
appear, it is still very much less than the steam-cloud which 
issued from Krakatao at the time of its great eruption in 
August, 1883. That was assumed to rise to nearly nine- 
teen miles.* On the same August 30, when the crater was 

* One of the artillery officers stationed at Fort-de-France deter- 
mined by instrumental measurement the elevation of the steam-col- 
umn to have been five thousand metres, or almost exactly three miles. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 287 

boiling from all its parts, and the roar from the ascending 
straight column was appalling, I timed the velocity of the 
issuing stream with my watch, and found it to be from 
one and a half to two miles per minute, and at intervals 
even greater. Only when coming near to this column does 
one appreciate the violence of its temper, the force that 
has projected it into the air and keeps it there ploughing 
through the other clouds that have preceded. 

It becomes an interesting question to ascertain to what 
extent the high flight that has been obtained is dependent 
upon the propelling power that shot out the vapor, or is 
merely a measure of this vapor's low gravity and expansive 
power. We may, perhaps, readily admit that the far upper 
zone of this pennant is " floating" of its own accord, and 
only through consecutive concussions from below feels the 
true projecting force of the volcano ; but, indeed, this ad- 
mission does not very materially affect the problem, as we 
have to consider in this connection not only the outer 
column of steam but also that which is contained in the 
throat of the volcano, and may even rise from very con- 
siderable depths. The fact that so frequently the lofty 
pennant is shot in a straight line entirely through the zone 
of the trade-winds, as many of my photographs show, and 
perhaps even through the zone of the anti-trades, naturally 
proves that, at certain times at least, the propelling power is 
responsible for the full or nearly full height that the cloud 
attains. 

In the chapter on " The Geography of Mont Pelee" I 
have stated that it appeared to me that not only were the 



288 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

eruptions taking place from the summit of the new frag- 
mental cone that has been erected over the floor of the basin 
of the Etang Sec, but also from still-existing parts of this 
ancient floor, and I even ventured the assertion that the de- 
structive blast of August 30 may have had its origin here, 
rather than in the chimney-pot. I was led to this conclusion 
by the violence of the steam eruptions coming from the great 
depths of the crater, and their gradual crowding over to the 
side turned to Morne Rouge — the location whence seems to 
have issued the explosive tornado of May 8. This view 
seems also to be shared by Professor Lacroix, who observes 
(Comptes Rendus, October 27, 1902, p. 673) : " It would ap- 
pear that it is from the interval between the walls of the 
crater and the base of the cone, as well as from the flanks 
of the cone itself, that the columns of gas and vapors, at 
times of calm, ascend vertically to prodigious heights ("II 
semble que c'est de I'intervalle situe entre les parois du cratere 
et la base de ce cone, ainsi que des jiancs de celui-ci qui sortent 
actuellement les colonnes degaz et de vapeurs qui, les jours de 
calme, montent verticalement a une hauteur prodigieuse"). 
The plate (decimaprima, 28a) illustrating the eruption of Ve- 
suvius in 1767, and contained in the " Gabinetto Vesuviano" 
of Delia Torre (1797), perhaps represents the same form of 
double synchronic activity. 

Quantity of Ash-Sediment Discharged. — I have else- 
where incidentally stated that there was probably more steam 
being thrown out by Pelee at any particle of time during 
the 30th of August than was escaping from all the engine 
jets in the world taken collectively — from stationary engines, 




Photo. Heilprin 



"SMOKING" from the new fragmental cone 

August 24, 1902 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 289 

locomotives, steamboats, etc. Professor Israel C. Russell, 
in a paper on the " Volcanic Eruptions on Martinique and 
St. Vincent" [National Geographic Magazine, December, 
1902), gives expression to this quantity by assuming the 
areal contents of a steam-cloud rising to three or four miles 
to be about 4,000,000,000 of cubic feet. He further assumes 
such a cloud to be charged at its minimum with one per 
cent., or 40,000,000 cubic feet, of solid matter, and that it 
is regularly replaced every five minutes by another cloud 
(the rate of ascent here considered being about three- 
quarters of a mile per minute, which is very much less 
than I found it to be on August 30). Hence, the discharge 
of solid matter from the crater will be every five minutes 
40,000,000 cubic feet. In all of these data I believe that 
Professor Russell has understated, rather than overstated, 
the conditions as they exist, and perhaps very much so, but 
they serve as an interesting basis for further analysis and 
comparison.* The discharge of 40,000,000 cubic feet of 
solid sediment every five minutes means 480,000,000 cubic 
feet per hour, and 11,520,000,000 cubic feet per day of 
twenty-four hours, which is one and a half times the quan- 
tity [of sediment) that is discharged by the Mississippi River 
in the course of a whole year ! In other words, if these 
figures are in any way accurate, the sedimental discharge 
from the crater of Mont Pelee, taken at a minimum valua- 



* Professor Eussell himself seems to incline to the opinion that 
ten per cent, would more nearly represent the proportion of solid 
matter contained in the cloud. 

19 



290 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 

tion, is in any period of time during a condition of mod- 
erate eruption more than five hundred times that of the 
Mississippi River, and consequently considerably greater 
than that of all the rivers of the world combined. This 
daily discharge from Pelee of 11,520,000,000 cubic feet of 
sediment would raise the level of a region having the area 
of Martinique by almost exactly one foot. Mont Pelee has 
now been in a condition of forceful activity for upwards of 
two hundred days ; can we assume that during this time it 
may have thrown out a mass of material whose cubical 
contents are hardly less than a quarter of the area of 
Martinique as it now appears above the water? One is, 
indeed, almost appalled by the magnitude of this work, 
and yet the work may even be very much greater than is 
here stated. We ask ourselves the questions, What be- 
comes of the void that is being formed in the interior? 
What form of new catastrophe does it invite ? There can 
be no answer to a question of this kind — except in the 
future happening that may be associated with this special 
condition. But geologists must take count of the force as 
being one of greatest potential energy, whose relation to 
the modelling and the shaping of the destinies of the globe 
is of far greater significance than has generally been con- 
ceived. 

Flaming Oases. — I do not think that we are quite justi- 
fied in denying the presence of flames in the visible phe- 
nomena of Pelee. Burning gases and issuing flames having 
been observed in some volcanoes, there is no particular 
reason, so far as I can see, why they should not also be 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 291 

here. The fact that most of the supra-crateral illumina- 
tion, so often described as flame, is merely a reflex from 
the glowing, incandescent matter below, is in no way an 
answer to positive statements, coming from seemingly 
careful, even if non-scientific, observers, which assert that 
flames were unmistakably distinguishable in more than one 
eruption. Such statements should naturally be received 
with caution, but not necessarily immediately denied. If 
it may be true that a part of the extraordinary electric 
illumination which we witnessed on the night of August 30, 
at the time of the destructive eruption, and that others 
witnessed on the 25th of the same month, on August* 9, 
and on May 26 and 28, besides other times, was of a 
gaseous nature, as some investigators pretend, then it 
becomes easy to believe that burning flames may have been 
seen shooting out from or burning around the crown of the 
volcano. M. Roux, a member of the Astronomical Society 
of France, in his report to Camille Flammarion, claims to 
have seen fixed flames (" des feux fixes oVune fiamme tres 
blanche"). I saw nothing that was even remotely suggestive 
of flame. 

Electric Illumination in the Volcanic Cloud. — The cloud 
illumination which I have already described as accompany- 
ing the eruption of August 30 (Chapter XVI), and the 
kind which had been observed several times before as 
part of the eruptive activity of Pelee,* certainly constitutes 

* See August F. Jaccaci, "Pelee the Destroyer," McClure's Mag- 
azine, September, 1902 ; Eobert T. Hill, National Geographic Magazine, 
July, 1902 ; Kennan, " The Tragedy of Pelee," 1902. 



292 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 

one of the most interesting, and perhaps least understood, 
phenomena associated with volcanic discharges. Indeed, we 
are still hardly in a position to assert that the phenomena 
are wholly electric, or whether they may not be in consider- 
able part gaseous ; or, again, whether they may not represent 
a form of electric manifestation whose peculiarities have 
been induced by development in a complex gas-cloud in 
place of the ordinary atmospheric one. The figures that I 
have represented were sketched immediately after the cul- 
mination of the storm, when the ocular impression was still 
very distinct. None of the irregular figures — circles, circles 
with undulating streamers, serpent-lines, straight lines, etc. 
— had the full dazzling quality of the zig-zag lightning that 
at times flashed through their field, but appeared extremely 
brilliant, yellowish in color, varying at times to purple. 
Possibly, this was an indication of the great height of the 
clouds and the tenuity of the atmosphere in which they were 
developed, a condition which is well known to influence the 
character in color of ordinary lightning flashes. The hori- 
zontal flashes, and also the serpent-lines, appeared to take 
horizontal courses through the clouds, or across spaces 
uniting individual fields of cloud, and manifestly their 
luminant lines marked a successive development in a 
progressive field. I did not myself observe any of these 
" bars" terminating or exploding in an end-flash or star, as 
some others have stated, but the condition might well have 
existed, seeing how many rocket-like bursts appeared in 
some parts of the cloud. The display lasted nearly an hour, 
almost exactly the duration of the discharge of lapilli and 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 293 

ash on the Habitation where we were staying, and during 
this time there was a continuous, but not loud, roaring — 
perhaps, it would be better to say, rolling — of thunder, 
which in regular crescendos and diminuendos seemed to 
traverse the entire field of the volcanic cloud. 

Whatever may be the precise nature of these extra- 
ordinary displays — and only after careful spectroscopic 
analysis will we be able to arrive at a positive conclusion as 
to their character — it is certain that something similar has 
been observed in the eruptions of some (perhaps many) 
other volcanoes. The balls of electric fire that have been 
described from the ascending steam-column of Vesuvius are 
almost certainly a part of the same phenomenon, although 
sometimes they are referred to actually falling incandescent 
boulders, the same as in the Soufriere eruption of 1812. 
Professors Sekiya and Kikuchi, in their report upon the 
Bandai-San eruption (1888), speak of innumerable sparks 
of fire being seen through the densely falling ashes, with 
characters quite different from lightning ; but these inves- 
tigators refer to them as being produced " by stones and 
rocks striking against each other in the air or falling on a 
rocky bed. . . . We could discover nothing to lead us to 
believe that there had been combustion or any other heat 
manifestations." * It is singular that at the time of our own 
observations all of the phenomena were overhead, nothing 
appearing in the location immediately about or directly over 
the crateral opening. 

* Journal College of Science, Tokyo, III, 1890, p. 129. 



294 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 

Nothing of the nature here referred to seems to have 
been remarked as an accompaniment of the Krakatoa erup- 
tion, but the report of Pond and Percy Smith on the great 
eruption of Tarawera, in New Zealand, in June, 1886, leaves 
no doubt that the phenomena witnessed there were identi- 
cal with those of Pelee. "The electrical phenomena ac- 
companying the outburst," we are told, " must have been on 
the grandest scale. The vast cloud appears to have been 
highly charged with lightning, which was flashing and 
darting across and through it : sometimes shooting upward 
in long, curved streamers, at others following horizontal or 
downward directions, the flashes frequently ending in balls 
of fire, which as often burst into thousands of rocket-like 
stars." * It should be noted that some of the electric dis- 
play of Tarawera was "accompanied by a rustling or crack- 
ling noise . . . probably the same [noise] as is heard some- 
times at great auroral displays." It would seem that Drs. 
Flett and Tempest Anderson observed a minor exhibition 
of this form of electric discharge in the low-rolling black 
cloud of July 9. 

Atmospheric Stability. — It is a noteworthy fact, and one 
that is wholly opposed to the view that violent volcanic erup- 
tions are necessarily indicated by precedent atmospheric dis- 
turbances, that none of the great eruptions of Pelee fol- 
lowed any marked barometric fluctuation. For several days 
preceding the May 8 eruption, including May 7, as the 
Saint Pierre records show, the atmosphere was singularly 

* Transactions New Zealand Institute, 1886 (1887), p. 352. 




Painted by George Varian S. S. McClure Co., Copyright, 1902 

THE HEAVENS AGLOW— MAY 26 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 295 

impassive, the barometer registering at noon seven hundred 
and sixty-two millimetres, and only on one day dropping 
to seven hundred and sixty-one millimetres. Much the 
same condition of stability was recorded by the barometer 
of the Meteorological Observatory of Fort-de-France during 
several days preceding the explosion of August 30. Im- 
mediately preceding the event of May 8, and also of June 
6, as the observations of M. Fernand Clerc and the registry 
of the Pouyer-Quertier indicate, there was a rapid fluctua- 
tion with sudden fall (and equally rapid recovery), — the 
depression of June 6 amounting to four millimetres, which, 
I understand, is quite significant in the island of Martinique, 
— but this movement may have been induced as the 
result of a terrestrial (seismic) concussion rather than of 
a true currental displacement in the atmosphere.* The 
eruptions of Tarawera and Bandai-San likewise took jjlace 
at times of atmospheric calm, or when the barometer indi- 
cated no abnormal depression, "either shortly before or 
during the catastrophe" (Pond and Percy Smith). The 
great cataclysm of Krakatoa was preceded by a night of 
raging storm, but as the volcano had really been very 
active already before that date this fact loses all significance. 
Breislak, describing the great eruption of Vesuvius in June, 
1794, remarks upon the stability of the barometer: "Le 



* The almost instantaneous barometric fluctuation noted at the 
Meteorological Observatory at Fort-de-France on the evening of 
August 30, and at the immediate time of the eruption, was from 
three to four millimetres. See Appendix. 



296 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

tableau des observations meteorologiques . . . prouve que le 
barometre n'a eprouve aucun changement sensible" (" Voy- 
ages dans la Campanie" 1801, p. 216). I think that it 
would not be difficult to show from the records of many 
eruptions that the state of the atmosphere has little to do 
with the development of phenomena of this class. 

Counter Atmospheric Current. — The existence of such a 
return current, or of a wind directed to the volcano, follow- 
ing immediately upon the explosion of May 8 is substan- 
tially vouched for in the published observations of MM. 
Roux and Celestin, members of the Societe Astronomique 
de France, and of others who witnessed the catastrophe at 
close range. Some of these describe the wind as being 
of almost hurricane force, which swept off the branches and 
twigs of the trees that stood in its course, and overthrew or 
swept off other objects. On June 6, when the great 
ash-cloud swept over Fort-de-France, and announced the 
very severe eruption that had just taken place, I particu- 
larly noted the extreme velocity with which the normal 
clouds of the atmosphere were sailing in a lower zone 
directly to the volcano, the appearance being very much as 
though they had been forcibly drawn to it. There was, I 
believe, no particular movement where I was standing. At 
the time of the Bandai-San eruption these counter-currents 
appear to have been particularly strong, and perhaps even 
did much of the wrecking. Professors Sekiya and Kikuchi 
state that the "fearful blasts that wrought such havoc on the 
forests and villages of the 15th of July certainly were not 
counter-currents of this class, however strong these may 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 297 

have been," but " gusts from the volcano." Yet it appears 
in the testimony and report of T. Uda, of Koka'i village, 
Yama-Kori, who was the nearest reliable witness to the 
catastrophe, and only 3.2 miles east-southeast of Bandai- 
San, that : " Soon after the eruption a great whirling wind 
suddenly swept over the eastern part of the mountain with 
great violence, destroying Shibutani, Shirokijo, Ojigakura, 
etc." These villages are part of the seven that are indicated 
in the official report as having been destroyed. This state- 
ment is, therefore, directly opposed to that of Sekiya and 
Kikuchi. 

Pond and Percy Smith in their report on the Tarawera 
eruption remark the issuance of a similar wind : " Soon 
after the first outburst, and before the fall of the first stones, 
a great wind arose, which rushed in the direction of the 
point of erujDtion with great force, and was most bitterly 
cold" (p. 351). The reference to the lowering of the tem- 
perature is very interesting. On June 6, in Fort-de-France, 
immediately on the coming of the ash-cloud and of the 
counter-current there was a perceptible cooling of the at- 
mosphere, perhaps by fully ten degrees, and this condition 
remained for two or three hours. How much of this may 
have been a direct following of the constructed counter- 
wind, or due to the cutting off of the sun's rays by the 
interposed cloud, I do not profess to be able to say ; but the 
suddenness of the lowering of the temperature makes it 
almost certain that the phenomenon was intimately bound 
up with the coming of the wind. In tropical regions the 
blanketing of the sun's rays more generally brings about a 



298 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 

sultry atmosphere ; in this instance, it was one of refreshing 
coolness, following closely upon an earlier hot air. 

As regards the nature of this counter-current I do not 
think it can be questioned that the explanation given by 
Sekiya and Kikuchi is approximately the correct one. The 
immense volumes of steam that issue from the volcano sud- 
denly expand, and in doing so necessarily lower the tem- 
perature of the surrounding atmosphere, and also diminish 
its pressure — the steam itself undergoing partial expansion. 
" To fill the partial vacuum thus produced and to equilibrate 
the reduced pressure, there follows an inward rush of air 
towards the crater. The strong winds commonly described 
as a feature of volcanic eruptions are probably due to this 
cause." 

Magnetic Disturbances. — The eruption of Mont Pelee 
has sometimes been said to surpass all other recorded erup- 
tions in the magnitude of the magnetic disturbance which 
it occasioned, the electro-magnetic waves that were shot out 
causing many hours' disturbance to the magnetic needle at 
distances of two thousand and five thousand miles ; and it 
has been claimed that this was " the first instance that mag- 
netic effects caused by eruptions of distant volcanoes have 
ever been recorded at magnetic observatories." * This as- 
sertion is linked with the disturbances which were observed 
at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey magnetic 
observatories located at Cheltenham, Maryland, seventeen 
miles southeast of Washington, and at Baldwin, Kansas, 

* National Geographic Magazine, June, 1902, p. 209. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 299 

seventeen miles south of Lawrence, and which, noticed at 
both observatories at practically the same instant of time — 
corresponding to 7 h. 54 m. local time of Saint Pierre — are 
naturally (though not absolutely) associated with the Mar- 
tinique explosion. There was a second disturbance of these 
needles on May 20, conformably with the second great 
eruption of Pelee. The disturbance at the Cheltenham ob- 
servatory is stated by Bauer {Science, May 30, 1902) to have 
amounted at times to about 1/350 of the value of the hori- 
zontal intensity (.00050 — .00060 c.g.s. units) and to from 
10' to 15' in declination. Corresponding disturbances have 
been noted at Toronto, Stoney hurst, Val Joyeux (France), 
Paris, Potsdam, Pola, Athens, and Honolulu (Terrestrial 
Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, June, 1902 ; Me- 
teor ologisches Zeitschrift, Vienna, XIX, pp. 316-317 ; Comp- 
tes Rendus, June 16, 1902), and it is remarkable that all 
of these were noted at almost precisely the same moment 
of time, corresponding to 7 h. 54 m. of the time of Saint 
Pierre. At Athens, as at most of the other stations, no 
seismic disturbance of any kind was noted at this time ; on 
the other hand, the great earthquake of Guatemala, on 
April 18, was impressively registered by the seismographs 
at nearly all, or all of the observatories. The most in- 
teresting magnetic notation is that of Zi-ka-Wei, China, the 
observations pertaining to which were made by M. de Moid- 
rey, and are published in the Comptes Rendus for August 
11, 1902 : " Ce jour-la, a 7 h. 58 m. (Martinique time), apres 
une longue periode de calme magnetique, notre bifilaire 
indique un accroissement brusque de la composante horizon- 



300 THE PHENOMENA OE THE EETJPTION 

tale, qui reste agitee pendant huit heures environ" (p. 322) . 
The length of duration, and the great distance at which 
the disturbance was felt, are alike noteworthy. Zi-ka-Wei 
is situated almost exactly on the meridian opposed to 
Saint Pierre — i.e., half round the world in distance from it. 
This record is specially significant, as during the Krakatoa 
eruption it was considered doubtful if the instruments of 
this station recorded any disturbance that could be correlated 
with the events that had transpired in the Sunda Straits.* 

The replies to the official inquiries sent out by the 
Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society would seem to 
indicate that no particular magnetic disturbances were noted 
in Bombay, Melbourne or Toronto, and the perturbation 
was so slight and of so doubtful a nature in the European 
cities that it may be questioned if they were in any way 
related to the eruption ; at all events, there was nothing 
that was in any way comparable with the magnitude of the 
disturbance registered at the American stations. On the 
other hand, it seems that some slight magnetic variation 
was noted at Para, Brazil, on the day of the Krakatoa 
eruption. Dr. Van der Stok, the Director of the Batavia 
Observatory, noted at the time of the Krakatoa eruption a 
marked magnetic oscillation which he attributed to the 
influence of the magnetic iron contained in the falling ashes. 
Probably this disturbance was of the same nature as that 

* J\f arc Dechevrens : " Je ne sais si les irregularites magnetiques que 
fenvoie out eu aussi une relation avec le bouleversement de Krakatoa ; les 
magnetogrammes ne montrent Hen le 28." — Eoyal Society Eeport, 1888, 
p. 473. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 301 

which I noted on the rim of the ancient basin of the Lac 
des Palmistes, at the time of my first ascent to the summit 
of Pelee (May 31), and when the compass-needle was de- 
flected forty degrees or more to the eastward. The basin 
was still extensively steaming, and was largely filled up 
with ejected material from the volcano, recently cast out.* 

Afterglows. — Among the interesting optical phenomena 
associated with the Pelee eruptions were the remarkable 
afterglows which for a fairly extended period were noted in 
many and widely separated parts of the earth's surface, and 
presented themselves with an intensity that almost rivalled 
those which for a period of a year and more followed the 
Krakatoa eruption. I have elsewhere noted these glows as 
having been observed by me on September 9, in approxi- 
mate latitude 26° 30' N., longitude 68° 30' W. ; on Septem- 
10 in latitude 30°, longitude 69° 30' ; and on September 11, 
in latitude 33° 45', longitude 71° ; and again, at a much 
later period, up to nearly the middle of November in New 
York and Philadelphia. At the latter time, the glows were 
also observed in Boston, Baltimore and other American 

. * An interesting possible relation existing between violent ex- 
plosions and magnetic disturbance has recently been discussed by- 
Professor Nipher (Science, July 11, 1902, p. 64). The full record of 
the magnetic disturbances connected with the West Indian eruptions 
is being elaborated by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
It is a noteworthy fact that nearly all of the earliest records of mag- 
netic disturbance relate to the eruption of Mont Pelee on the 8th 
May, and not to the earlier one of the Soufriere. This opens up an 
interesting field of inquiry in connection with the physics of the two 
volcanoes. 



302 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

cities. Unfortunately, few observations were made in this 
section of the United States, and in many parts the bright 
loom, which appeared usually twenty to twenty-five min- 
utes after the disappearance of the sun, was credited to the 
smoke which permeated the atmosphere as the result of 
undue burning of soft coal. In some places the glow was 
also visible in early morning. 

Brilliant afterglows or modified sunsets whose connec- 
tion with the Martinique eruption can hardly be questioned 
were noted, among other localities, at 

A hundred miles westward of St. Lucia, on May 9 
(green sunset, observed by the royal mail steamer La 
Plata). 

At Barbados, on May 11 and 14, with brilliant orange 
skies, beginning at 5.30 p.m. 

At Honolulu, twelve days after the eruption, with a 
brilliancy of color about equal to that of the glows which 
appeared in the first two weeks after the Krakatoa eruption. 
On July 31, as reported by Mr. S. E. Bishop {Nature, Sep- 
tember 4, 1902, p. 442), the solar corona or " Bishop's 
ring" was still conspicuous. 

At Kingston, Jamaica, on May 25-31 and before ; with 
colors reported to have been " extraordinarily rich and 
beautiful." 

At St. Kitts, in red color, on May 27 — being the earliest 
distinctive glow noticed on the island. 

Off the Venezuelan coast, between Carupano and La 
Guayra, noted by H. M. S. Gazelle, on May 10. 

At Los Angeles, California, on June 22 and 23. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 303 

At Funclial, Madeira, on June 6, 10 and 11 — possibly- 
even at an earlier period — described by F. W. T. Krohn to 
have been similar to the Krakatoa glows ; also on or about 
July 6-7, 12-16, 26-27 and August 1-3. 

At Slough, England (as observed by Professor A. S. 
Herschel), on June 17, 21, 26 and later. 

At Lewisham, South Kensington, and other localities in 
England during late June and in July. 

At Bombay, about June 25 (?) . 

At Morges, Switzerland, as observed by Professor F. A. 
Forel {Journal Suisse, of July 10) on July 5, a brilliant 
disk of a whitish-yellow light appearing thirty degrees 
above the sunset point a quarter of an hour after the setting 
of the sun. 

In northern Italy, in early July, with streaked radia- 
tions. 

At Berlin, in late June or early July, with remarkable 
coloring. 

The characteristics of the Pelee (and Soufriere) after- 
glows were similar to those of the glows of Krakatoa, 
although the intensity of the coloring and illumination was 
probably at most points of observation less pronounced than 
in the case of the glows of 1883 and 1884. As I observed 
the coloring towards the middle of September, at localities 
north-northwest of Martinique, a few days after the new 
great eruptions of Pelee and the Soufriere, it was very bril- 
liant, the orange and the red being particularly fine. The 
upper border of the bright illumination faded off into a 
superb and intense lilac, which, I believe, had not generally 



304 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

been observed as a feature of the Krakatoa glows. Bishop 
noticed this lilac color in 1884 in Honolulu, even in day- 
time, and it is certainly due to the commingling of the 
pink or roseate light with the normal blue of the sky. 
Five great " shadow-beams," with broadening ends directed 
to the zenith, and of almost exactly the color of the purple- 
blue in the outlying field of the sky, were a distinctive 
feature of the area of the glows on September 9 and 10 
radiating fan-like from the position of the sun, and rising 
to perhaps forty-five degrees. 

The brilliancy of the glows as they were observed in 
parts of western Switzerland was such as to suggest a con- 
flagration, appearing "as if the whole of the west of Switz- 
erland was on fire and the flames reflected in the sky." * 
It is singular that Professor Herschel makes the same obser- 
vation for the appearance at Slough, England, on the night 
of June 22, which was " an almost terrifying resemblance 
to reflection in the sky of an immense distant conflagration" 
[Nature, July 24, 1902, p. 294). I have been personally 
informed that the same aspect of the glows was noted in 
Honolulu, where many thought that the islands were 
aflame. The height of the glow-producing matter has been 
estimated by Herschel to have been at different times from 
five or eight to thirteen or twenty miles, whereas the at- 
mosphere charged with the volcanic dust of Krakatoa was 
thought to have floated twenty-five or thirty, and even forty 



* Correspondence in London Daily Chronicle, dated Geneva, July 
14. 




Photo. Heilprin 



THE ISSUING BLASTS FROM THE CRATER— AUGUST 24, 1902 
Lower white clouds from base of crater 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 305 

and seventy miles high, the uppermost particles of matter 
being at that time much finer than those emitted by Pelee. 

It is interesting to note in connection with the low 
position of this glow-cloud that its velocity of passage, com- 
pared with that of the Krakatoa eruption, was also a low 
one. Bishop tells us that it arrived in Honolulu ten days 
after the Pelee outbreak, whereas the Krakatoa glows, trav- 
ersing twice the distance, arrived at the same spot in only 
two days' longer time. This would give in the one instance 
a velocity of about two and a half times that of the other, or 
of sixty to seventy miles an hour in the case of the Kraka- 
toa cloud, and of twenty-three to twenty-five miles for the 
cloud from Pelee. There is seemingly no reason to doubt 
that the movement was in both cases from the east to the 
west, conformably to the determinations that have been 
made that the high cirrus atmospheric currents take this 
course in the zone of (approximately) twenty degrees on 
either side of the equator. Krohn has also assumed from 
the records of Funchal, Madeira, that the rate of travel of 
the Pelee cloud was on an average thirty miles an hour 
{Nature, September 25, 1902, p. 540). The direction of 
travel, measured by the time period, would here also appear 
to have been from east to west. 

The Shock and Noise of the Eruption. — Humboldt, in 
dealing with the volcanic phenomena of the West Indies, 
makes the interesting observation that the eruption of the 
Soufriere, in 1812, was not as audible near to the mountain 
as it was farther out to sea. It is certain that very few 
of the inhabitants of Fort-de-France heard the explosion 

20 



306 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

of Pelee on May 8, or were made conscious of it through 
an earth-shock or pulsation. Diligent inquiry among all 
classes of people leaves me in doubt as to whether anybody 
really heard it. Yet it is certain that this eruption was un- 
mistakably heard at St. Kitts and St. Thomas, from two 
hundred and seventy to three hundred miles distant, and in 
all or nearly all of the islands of the Lesser Antilles. The 
explosion of May 20 went similarly unnoticed in Fort-de- 
France, whereas the detonations reported for that event in 
St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe and Dominica were of 
marked intensity. On the night of August 30 I was 
located with my associate at the Habitation Leyritz, on the 
northeastern foot of the volcano, not more than four miles 
in a direct line from the crater, and with nothing interposed 
between it and ourselves except the open, almost directly 
descending slope of the mountain. When the death-dealing 
explosion took place we were either seated in the open dining- 
hall or were outside remarking upon the magnificence of the 
electric display. Beyond hearing one or two " thuds," that 
seemed to rise above the general voice of the volcano, I 
doubt if any of our party of four could have localized the 
explosion or series of explosions through any particular 
sound or detonation. There was surely no detonation that 
was particularly striking at this time. On the other hand, 
the detonations heard at corresponding times at Port-of- 
Spain, Trinidad, at Carupano, Venezuela, and in the island 
of St. Kitts — localities removed from two hundred and 
seventy -five to three hundred and twenty-five miles away in 
opposite directions — have been likened to the firing of 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EBUPTION 307 

heavy siege-guns. The officers of the Fontabelle, among 
others, assured me of this condition in Port-of-Spain. It 
seems that the detonations were noted on the Venezuelan 
coast far beyond Carupano, where rather severe earth- 
quake shocks were also recorded. The report of United 
States Consul Plumacher, of Maracaibo, published in the 
Monthly Weather Review, gives the important record that 
on the morning of the first great eruption of Pelee (May 
8) terrific detonations were heard in the region of his post, 
which was about eight hundred miles from Martinique. 
These sounds were recognized to be not of " heavy artil- 
lery," which they had been thought to be by a servant, for 
"I knew that ... if all of the cannons of Venezuela 
were fired together, they could not produce such sounds. 
It was not like cannonading with heavy siege-guns ; it was 
neither thunder, nor the strange, unpleasant subterranean 
sounds of convulsions of the earth ; it was as if immense 
explosions were fired high up in the clouds." This seeming 
reversal of the detonations from the clouds was also re- 
marked at Port-of-Spain as a feature of the detonations ac- 
companying the August 30 eruption. With the intensity 
of sound that appeared at Maracaibo, it is fair to presume 
that the detonations were markedly audible two or three 
hundred miles farther, or perhaps at a full distance from 
the seat of disturbance of a thousand miles. Humboldt 
states that " the frightful subterranean noise, like the thun- 
dering of cannon, produced by the violent eruption of 
the latter volcano [the Soufriere of St. Vincent] on the 
30th of April, 1812, was heard on the distant grass plains 



308 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

(llanos) of Calabozo, and on the shores of the Rio Apure, 
one hundred and ninety-two geographical miles farther 
to the west than its junction with the Orinoco" (Cosmos, 
Bonn's Edition, V, p. 422) — a point fully eight hundred 
miles in a direct line from the island of St. Vincent. 

The peculiarity of the explosions being heard with 
terrific intensity at points of distance and hardly, if at all, 
near by, was also exhibited to an extent by the Krakatoa 
eruption, the report from which was carried to the island 
of Rodriguez, three thousand miles away — the farthest dis- 
tance from a point of origin at which sound has ever been 
heard, or at least recorded (Royal Society Report, p. 79). 
General Strachey, commenting upon this peculiarity, be- 
lieves that " probably this peculiar phenomenon was caused 
by the large amount of solid matter" which at the time of 
the eruptions "was ejected into the atmosphere by the 
volcano, and which formed in the lower strata of the air a 
screen of sufficient density to prevent the sound-waves from 
penetrating to those places over which it was more im- 
mediately suspended" (p. 79). This explanation, so con- 
trary to the results that have been obtained by Tyndall 
and others in their experiments upon the transparency and 
opacity of the atmos]3here in relation to the passage of 
sound-waves — the unexpected determination that the dis- 
semination of solid particles in the air, the presence of fog, 
rain or snow, etc., have little or no effect upon the trans- 
mission of sound — it seems to me can hardly be the correct 
one ; nor, indeed, can it find application to the conditions 
which existed at the time of the eruption of August 30, 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 309 

when I was located at the Habitation Leyritz. We were 
then practically under, and not behind, the volcanic cloud, 
through which came quite distinctly the muffled, but con- 
tinuous, roar of the volcano. If the obscuration of sound 
by solid particles was really produced, the phenomenon 
must have taken place within the body or vent of the vol- 
cano itself. I should rather believe that the acoustic inter- 
ruption was in some way associated with an atmospheric 
disintegration — the presence within it of layers of different 
thermal power and differing vaporous constitution, pro- 
ducing, to use Tyndall's words, acoustic clouds that are 
"flocculent to sound" ("Lectures on Sound," 1875, p. 321).* 
This* would, however, still leave unexplained the transmis- 
sion of the sound to great distances, unless, indeed, we may 
be permitted to assume that the propagation of the sound- 
waves has been carried to distant points through the ma- 
terials of the solid crust. Can it be thought that the 
sounds coming as if thrown down by the clouds, noted by 
Mr. Plumacher at Maracaibo and by others in the island 
of Trinidad, were reflections from lofty " acoustic clouds," 
to which the sound-waves were transmitted through the 
central orifice of the volcano ? This suggestion is thrown 
out with much diffidence, and only because no . ordinarily 



* The remarkable experiments made by the distinguished British 
physicist in connection with the Trinity House have established the 
existence of conditions of absolute opacity to sound in an atmosphere 
that is optically transparent, and shown the fallacy of the still com- 
monly accepted notion that a direct relation exists between a clear 
atmosphere and the transmission of sound. 



310 THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 

recognized theory seems to satisfactorily account for the 
facts as they are present. 

The remarkable atmospheric and seismic waves which 
followed the Krakatoa eruption seem also to have been a 
part of the Pelee or Soufriere j)henomena as well, but the 
data that appertain to them are only meagrely in hand, and 
leave little to be said regarding the full intensity of the 
phenomena. Professor Henry Kelm Clayton, of the Blue 
Hill Observatory, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, has noted 
" some marked barographic undulations at Blue Hill on the 
morning of May 7, which," it was thought, were " perhaps 
connected with this [Martinique] volcanic eruption" (Nature, 
May 22, 1902, p. 102). Of more startling significance is 
the record of the observatory of Zi-ka-Wei, China, situated 
almost exactly half around the world from Martinique, 
which notes between 12.25 and 12.35, Martinique time, two 
marked tremors or shocks, registered by the mercurial ther- 
mometer acting as an accidental seismograph. These, as 
well as the magnetic perturbations observed earlier in the 
day, and which so closely correspond in time with the Pelee 
eruption, are referred by M. de Moidrey to the Martinique 
disturbance, and it is assumed from the hour at which the 
phenomena were observed that the time of propagation of 
the earth-wave was four hours and twenty-seven minutes, 
giving a velocity of approximately twenty-five miles per 
minute (Comptes Rendus, August 11, 1902, p. 322). This, 
barring the Krakatoa occurrence, is the only instance that 
is known to me of an earth-tremor or pulsation having been 
propagated clean through the centre of the earth to the 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EKUPTION 311 

antipodal surface. The seismographs of Great Britain give 
no registry for the Pelee eruption, having remained at rest, 
according to Professor Milne, from the 8th until the 11th 
of May. 

The Nature of the Destroying Blast. — In an article 
published in the August (1902) number of McClure's Mag- 
azine I expressed the opinion that the destroying element 
of the blast was seemingly one of the heavier (carbon ?) 
gases, and that with it the force of the superheated steam 
was acting only in a minor degree. At that time there 
appeared to me much to support this view, although I did 
not hesitate to say that the evidence upon which it was 
based was far from conclusive. Particularly needful for 
this demonstration was the proof of the actual existence of 
such gas acting with the shattering blast ; but up to this 
time none has been found. The only gases of consequence 
whose presence has so far been detected among the products, 
whether gaseous or mineral, of the Pelee eruptions are the 
sulphurous and sulphuretted-hydrogen, the former alone 
being present in any quantity.* Sulphur vapors or fumes 
were oppressively diffused through the atmosphere of Saint 

* Dr. Hovey has called attention to the significant absence of 
chlorine gas in the analyses that have been made by Hillebrand of 
the St. Vincent ash, and assumes that this may be an indication that 
fresh water, and not the water from the ocean, was the prime insti- 
gator of the volcanic movements. The same absence of chlorine or 
of chlorine salts distinguishes the Martinique ash. I, however, found 
some of the ejected boulders or bombs, both in the valley of the Eivi- 
eres Blanche-Seche and the basin of the Lac des Palmistes, carrying 
crusts or patches of greenish-yellow iron-chlorid. 



312 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

Pierre for the better part of two weeks before the main 
catastrophe (see Chapter III) — -horses and other animals 
dying from it, and respiration being made difficult for man 
— and at the time of his latest visit to the crater-border, in 
the month of October, Lacroix found them issuing in such 
quantities, in fumarolic blasts from the crevices of the cen- 
tral cone, as to make a close approach dangerous. I, my- 
self, several times detected the sulphur vapors five or six 
miles out at sea, but, singularly enough, failed to note their 
presence, except to a very minute degree, when standing at 
the rim of the crater. On the other hand, sulphur in the 
falling ash of the erujotion of August 30 was clearly in 
evidence at the Habitation Leyritz, and we are informed by 
Dr. Berte {La Geographie, September 15), of the Pouyer- 
Quertier, that the air was densely charged with it when the 
destroying cloud swept out from Pelee on the fatal May 8. 
From these conditions one has a right to conclude that this 
gas may have played an important part as an assistant in 
the destruction of life at Saint Pierre, even though an 
equally complete annihilation might have been brought 
about without it. 

The opportunity that was presented to me at the time 
of the second death-dealing eruption of Mont Pelee of 
almost immediately visiting the field of destruction, of in- 
terrogating a number of the severely wounded, and of ex- 
amining the bodies and clothing of some of the unfortunate 
dead, has forced upon me a somewhat different conclusion 
as to the nature or composition of the tornadic blast from 
that which I formerly held, for it is now made clear that 



> < 





o s 

— ' So 

UJ 3 

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THE PHENOMENA OF THE EETJPTION 313 

the acting force — to whatever extent it may have been aided 
by other forces or agents whose testimony does not appear 
— was superheated steam, or superheated steam charged with 
hot ashes and lapilli. The evidence proving this, both at 
Morne Balai and Ajoupa-Bouillon, and, as Lacroix found it 
later at Morne Rouge, is, it seems to me, conclusive. This 
steam was shot out as a violent blast, and its mechanical force, 
withering heat and possible mixture with other gas, shattered, 
asphyxiated and scorched ; and where charged with incan- 
descent particles of solid matter, as in that part of its course 
which overwhelmed Morne Rouge, also burned. Neither at 
Morne Balai nor at Ajoupa-Bouillon did I find the faintest 
indication of anything having burned with a flame, or 
having been carbonized, not even the dry palm-thatching of 
the cases. The trees that were left standing were dry and 
largely stripped, and in the less destroyed zone the leaves 
hung to the branches, shrivelled up as though having been 
rapidly passed through a dry-heat furnace or a scorch -blast. 
The sap from the twigs was completely gone, and the 
branches and branchlets broke square across. There was 
nothing to indicate the passage of combustible gases, and I 
failed to find — although my examination was not made with 
true minuteness — evidence of the presence or action of any 
of the terrestrial gases. A number of inquiries elicited the 
impression that sulphur was the only gas whose presence 
was detected in the passing storm, but even its action does 
not seem to have been badly felt. The scorching, reddening 
or boiling, and tumefaction of the bodies plainly showed the 
terribly swift and sure work of the passing steam and hot- 



314 THE PHENOMENA OF THE ERUPTION 

air ferment. The opening of a door or window only for an 
inch and for an instant was sufficient to invite the work of 
death. In this second great eruption of Mont Pelee the de- 
stroying force, as is shown by the number of frail houses 
that were left standing in or near the path of the storm, was 
less powerful than on May 8, but its zone of destruction was 
far greater, beginning almost immediately in a broad sweep 
over the crest of the volcano. It may be positively assumed 
that adjacent to the steam zone on either side was a zone of 
simple hot air or dry destruction, in which, doubtless, many 
also perished, for even here the ternjDerature must have 
ranged well into the hundreds of degrees. Professor La- 
croix has, from an inspection of metallic objects that have 
not been fused or undergone any material alteration, at- 
tempted to ascertain the degree of heat of the Saint Pierre 
blast. This, as determined by the non-fusion of the copper 
telephone wires and plates, iron railings, etc., would seem 
to have been not over 1900°. This method of determining 
the temperature is not necessarily a conclusive one, as the 
very rapid passage of a heated current over even readily 
combustible objects might not inflame or fuse, whereas a 
slower movement would.* But even with an air-temperature 
of no more than seven hundred to eight hundred degrees 
one need invoke the aid of no special agent to explain the 
condition of difficult or impossible respiration which has so 
frequently been testified to by those who escaped or survived 

* Lacroix fully recognizes this condition, and he states that car- 
tridges, rubber tubes, etc., were passed or jumped over by the hot 
current. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 315 

their wounds for a while. Assuredly the sensation must 
have been one of no air to breathe, and one of the results 
the burning or even excoriating of the lining of the throat 
and bronchi. It was like breathing a furnace-fire, especially 
where the blast was charged with burning matter. 

Professor Lacroix accepts the same interpretation of the 
destroying force that wrecked Morne Rouge as I have for 
that of Ajoupa-Bouillon, Morne Balai and Morne Capot.: 
"It is not doubtful that the destruction was due to the 
action of a cloud of aqueous vapor highly charged with hot 
ashes. There is no reason to seek for a combustible gas ; 
the trees are not burned and the palms from which the 
leaves have not been forcibly torn show these to be simply 
dried out" (Comptes Rendus, October 27, 1902, p. 672). It 
is not difficult to apply this lesson of the later eruption of 
Pelee to the special conditions of the Saint Pierre catas- 
trophe. With a tornadic blast of the character of, but 
more powerful than that which destroyed the five or more 
towns and villages on August 30, it is easy to assume the 
destruction of the city, although the swiftness and com- 
pleteness of this destruction will always appear surprising. 
We may, perhaps, assume as a factor in this complete de- 
struction the propagation of a number of serially and 
rapidly following explosions — such as Bunsen, Dixon and 
others have shown to exist in an ordinarily exploding gas- 
cloud.* These would surely greatly multiply the force of 

* See the paper by Harold B. Dixon : " On the Movements of the 
Flame in the Explosion of Gases." Proceedings Royal Society of 
London, LXX, September 20, 1902, pp. 471 et seq. 



316 THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 

the exploding or initial cloud. Professors Sekiya and Ki- 
kuchi, discussing the Bandai-San eruption (Journal of the 
College of Science, III, 1890) properly remark that "the 
tremendous explosions of steam at quick intervals lasting for 
about a minute produced violent disturbances of the air, con- 
sequent upon the sudden radial expansion of the liberated 
volumes of steam . . . The eruption of Bandai-San may 
be aptly compared to the firing of a tremendous gun — such 
a one, however, as can only be forged by nature." These 
authors also refer the immediate cause of the eruptions to 
" the sudden expansion of steam pent up within the moun- 
tain." There were no discharges following the first ex- 
plosion. 

The recognition of the nature of the destroying tornadic 
blasts which in such swift measure swept off upwards of 
thirty thousand inhabitants from the surface of the earth 
still leaves untouched some important considerations bearing 
upon the explosions themselves. What was the exact seat 
of the explosion or explosions ? Was the main explosion 
in the conduit of the volcano, whence the great internal 
detonation might have been conceived to pass ; or was its 
locus immediately above the crown of the volcano, with its 
ascensive energy blanketed by the opaque cloud of steam 
and ashes overhanging? It is not easy to explain the 
downwardly-directed or oblique shots, unless, indeed, we 
assume some such sort of down-throwing as the result of 
pressure from above or behind. Mr. George Kennan, in 
his work, " The Tragedy of Pelee" (1902), has ably discussed 
this aspect of the problem, and he compares the explosion 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE EEUPTION 317 

to other explosions which have had their directions or in- 
tensities determined by the presence of an unyielding wall 
or barrier on one side of the blast. The " extraordinary 
violence of the lateral blast caused by the explosion of the 
Toulon powder-magazine, in March, 1899," — which, as 
stated by Colonel J. T. Bucknill (Engineering, London, 
May 26, 1899, pp. 665-666), appears to have exerted its 
main force in one direction (" something like an accidentally 
formed fougasse"), and covered the ground for a full kilo- 
metre in the path of its course with rock-debris and masonry, 
while hurling blocks of stone weighing four hundred-weight 
to a distance of two kilometres, — is justly brought in for 
comparison, and there is hardly a question that it approxi- 
mately supplies the explanation to the Pelee blast. Colonel 
Bucknill describes the Toulon magazine as being " so solidly 
built that it practically formed a sort of a cannon or mortar ;" 
and this is virtually what we find or can assume to have 
been the case with Pelee. The condition of explosion may 
then be stated as follows : A volume of steam with intense 
explosive energy rising to the crater-mouth, blowing out in 
its first paroxysm a part of the crater-floor, and then ex- 
ploding in free air under a heavily depressing cushion of 
ascending steam and ash, and with surrounding walls of 
rock on three sides and more to form an inner casing to 
nature's giant mortar. The blast was forced through the 
open cut,. or lower lip of the crater, that was directed to 
Saint Pierre. It is interesting to note that the " overflow" 
eruption of August 30 only took place after the crater-floor 
had been elevated, as we are informed by Lacroix, by per- 



318 THE PHENOMENA OP THE EEUPTION 

haps seven hundred to nine hundred feet as the result of 
the accumulation of volcanic ejecta. 

. The black appearance and " rolling" of the destroy- 
ing clouds are, as most investigators have already indicated, 
due to charging with large quantities of ashes and other 
solid particles. It is generally conceded that the brilliant 
red glow which was noted in it by some observers, especially 
in its advanced position, was merely the loom of the numer- 
ous incandescent particles that were contained within the 
cloud — the cloud appearing as if burning with flame.. But 
may it not be assumed that a part of this red coloring was 
clue to that property in steam under pressure which at times 
permits it to acquire a red color to transmitted light ? This 
condition was pointed out by Principal J. D. Forbes in the 
case of escaping steam from a locomotive as far back as 
1839 (Transactions Royal Society of Edinburgh, 14, 1839, 
p. 371) . Such a luminous red mass might readily have been 
taken for a " descending wall of fire," such as some seamen, 
like Captain Freeman of the Roddam, claim to have seen. 
It is interesting to note that a hot, suffocating blast, evi- 
dently of the type of that issuing from Mont Pelee, was 
noted by Pond and Percy Smith in their investigations of 
the Tarawera eruption (Transactions New Zealand Insti- 
tute, 1886 (1887), p. 351). 




5 < 



E 1 

3 

o 



APPENDIX 

LETTER FROM A PROFESSOR IN THE LYCEE OP SAINT PIERRE 

(Translated from the Bulletin of the Societe Astronomique de France) 

Saint Pierre, Saturday, May 3, 1902, 5.45 a.m. 

We are in the midst of a full eruption of Mont Pelee ; all night 
the volcano has been sputtering ashes over the city, which appeared 
this morning covered with a grayish shroud ; from time to time 
muffled detonations are heard. It is several days since the old 
volcano has been manifesting its desire to return to life, or, according 
to other theories, the beginning of its death-struggles, by the outbursts 
of vapor. The ancient lake has dried up ; another has formed which 
boils like molten metal. But nothing has been as impressive as the 
spectacle presented yesterday. 

When I went to the Lycee at eight o'clock the mountain was 
clear of all clouds and vapor. At the end of my lecture I noticed 
the tutors and some of their pupils pointing out the mountain to each 
other. I joined them. Three enormous balls of very compact, 
grayish smoke have just poured out of the crater ; the eruption con- 
tinues. The wind has carried these vapors towards the Dominica Chan- 
nel. At noon the eruption was renewed with greater severity. At 
two o'clock stones, plainly visible, were hurled out ; at the same hour 
in the morning your mother and sister were awakened by a detona- 
tion ; our dogs barked. I had been sleeping soundly, but my slum- 
bers were interrupted by a strange dream and a smell of sulphur. 
Ashes were raining down on the house itself and the furniture is full 
of them. We went out on the boulevard to see what was happening. 

Nine-forty-five. The ashes blind us ; Mont Pelee is completely 
invisible, being hidden by an impenetrable layer of vapors. All the 

319 



320 APPENDIX 

surroundings are full of smoke, which sticks to the trees and falls 
in an impalpable powder. We continue on our course in order to see 
what has happened to the Saussines. 

Near the Jardin des Plantes it becomes imprudent for your 
mother and sister to proceed further. I continue. They cross the 
Savane to see the Armamets ; a bull which has escaped rushes 
through the streets as though mad ; the little birds hardly know on 
which branch to perch; the pigeons are cowering in their houses; in 
the yards hens and ducks remain in their coops ; the appearance of 
the country is dismal ; it is grayer than when it rains ; in fact, it is 
raining, only it rains ashes. 

I arrived at the house of the Saussines ; all was closed. I 
knocked ; the door opened but was quickly closed again ; cinders 
cover the floor, the furniture, and penetrate even into the drawers. 
We relate our experiences ; the night has been a very anxious one, 
for it seemed as though we were awaiting suffocation. I took a cup 
of coffee and we then went off with Saussine. My hat was covered 
with ashes to a thickness of several millimetres ; my alpaca vest was 
gray, my trousers and my shoes the same color. 

From the Lycee it was almost impossible to distinguish the sea, so 
dense were the emanations. PeojDle asked, "Where would it end?" 
for their eyes, ears and noses were filled, and this state of affairs Avas 
becoming intolerable. The water of the Groyave had in part given 
out. My opposite neighbors left this morning. They went, as they 
said, up to Morne d' Orange in order to breathe more freely. It was 
a mistake, for the conditions there were the same. 

How did the next night pass ? The inhabitants of Sainte-Philo- 
mene and of Precheur were terrified, and women holding their little 
children in their arms were to be seen passing by. 

Ten o'clock. The drum calls. We were the only ones to hold 
classes. But the Governor has just arrived ; he has selected a com- 
mission. (The ashes had reached Lameutin in the south.) All the 
stores are closed, A dispatch reports that Fort-de-France, too, is 
receiving a fall of ashes. It would appear from the usual phenomena 



APPENDIX 321 

that we can expect a flow of lava ; but the air becomes more difficult 
to breathe. 

Noon. At two o'clock there will perhaps be something new 
again ; but I hasten to mail this letter. 



THE CATACLYSM OP MAT 8 AS WITNESSED BY M. ROGER ARNOUX, 
MEMBER OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OP FRANCE 

(Addressed to Camille Flammarion and published in the " Bulletin de la 
Societe Astronomique de France" August, 1902) 

" Fort-de-France, Martinique, le 3 juillet 1902. 
" Cher Maitre, 

" Seul survivant * de tous mes braves collegues de la Societe 
Astronomique de France habitant Saint-Pierre, le devoir me prescrit 
de vous faire part de la disparition de tous ces Societaires, y compris 
mon malheureux frere Charles, employe de la Compagnie Generale 
Transatlantique. Pour moi, je ne dois mon salut qu'au pur hasard qui 
me conduisit sur ma propriete du Parnasse, la veille au soir, 7 mai, 
personne n'ayant pu s'echapper de la ville pendant l'effroyable sinistre 
du 8 mai dernier. 

" Toute ma famille a ete aneantie par le coup fatal, mon pere, ma 
mere, mon frere, ma soeur ; ils etaieht restes a Saint-Pierre. 

"J'ai l'honneur de vous transmettre le rapport ci-dessous sur ce 
que fai vu. 

" Yeuillez agreer, cher Maitre, l'assurance de ma tres grande 

veneration. 

" Signe : Eoger Arnoux." 

Je remonterai dans ce recit de deux ans en arriere. 
Le lundi de la Pentecote 1900, etant alles en partie de plaisir au 
sommet de la Montagne, nous pumes decouvrir, mon frere et moi, ainsi 

* Nous avons vu que fort heureusement deux autres de nos Societaires 
actuellement a Paris : M. le docteur Kerny Neris et M. Th. Celestin, avaient 
pris la decision de s' eloigner du volcan. — C. F. 

21 



322 • APPENDIX 

que les guides qui nous accompagnaient, 1' emplacement de deux petites 
solfatares qui s'etaient ouvertes dans le eratere actuel dit l'Etang-Sec. 
Nous vimes nettement deux espaces de 30 ou 40 metres de rayon 
completement denudes, les arbres couches et brules et le sol parseme 
d'une matiere jaune que nous pensions etre du soufre ; tandis que lors 
de notre premiero ascension l'annee precedente, le meme site offrait le 
spectacle de la plus riche vegetation. Toutefois nous n'avons vu la 
moindre petite vapeur indiquant que ces matieres pussent etre en 
combustion. 

L'annee d'apres, quelques amis ayant fait une nouvelle ascension, 
m'assurerent avoir vu au meme endroit cinq ou six petites fumerolles 
d'oii s'echappait une fumee verdatre empestant le soufre. Mais ce 
n'est qu'au mois de mars de l'annee presente que les phenomenes se 
manifesterent d'une facon appreciable et qu'on commenca a en parler 
a Saint-Pierre. 

Des habitants des hauteurs du Precheur racontaient sentir presque 
continuellement une forte odeur de soufre, et un de mes amis habitant 
le quartier du Morne-d' Orange, me certifia avoir vu de nuit vers la fin 
du mois de mars une assez vive lueur sortant de l'entonnoir du eratere. 

Le temps etant demeure tres nuageux pendant tout le mois 
d'avril, personne ne put se rendre compte du travail qui se faisait sur 
la Montagne. Certains habitants du Precheur disaient avoir entendu 
des detonations, d'autres avoir vu du feu, etc. . . . et ce n'est que 
dans la nuit du 25 avril qu'on fut convaincu que la Montagne s'etait 
rallumee. 

Etant couche vers les onze heures et demie de la nuit du 25 avril, 
je fus reveille par une formidable detonation que je pris tout d'abord 
pour un coup de foudre, le meme fait s'etant reproduit un instant 
apres, je me levai pour examiner le ciel, trouvant singulier un orage 
au mois d'avril. Sitot que j'eus regarde la Montagne, je compris qu'il 
s'agissait d'une eruption. De l'endroit ou je savais etre le eratere, je 
vis s'echappant une immense eolonne de fumee dont le sommet 
s'inflechissait dans la direction Nord-Est. Bientot apres, ce furent 
des detonations et des grondements continuels, tandis que de la 



APPENDIX 323 

colonne de vapeur partaient des etincelles electriques. Nous recumes 
alors une pluie d'environ un demi-centimetre d'tin sable gris a grains 
presque aussi forts que le plomb de chasse appele cendrille. L' erup- 
tion dura jusque vers une heure et demie du matin et parut se ralentir 
pour de nouveau recommencer vers les cinq heures, nous lancant cette 
fois un sable plus gris que la nuit et dont les grains etaient presque 
impalpables. 

Les jours suivants, on voyait, surmontant la Moutagne, un gros 
nuage d'un gris bleuatre ayant absolument l'aspect d'un gros nuage 
orageux, mais ni grondements, ni orages, ce qui faisait penser que sans 
doute le cratere etant largement ouvert, les phenomenes ne pouvaient 
qu'aller en diminuant. 

Le matin du 2 mai, vers les neuf heures, les memes faits signales 
pour la premiere eruption, se reproduisirent (detonations, grondements, 
cendres, etc. . . .) et je pus m'apercevoir que le cratere s'etait elargi 
considerablement ou, pour mieux dire, que d'autres bouches s'etaient 
ouvertes, mais a peu de distance de la premiere et toujours dans le 
meme cirque de l'Etang-Sec, large d'environ 300 metres et situe a peu 
pres a 800 metres d'altitude. 

Ce n'est que le 5 mai que la decharge du cratere commenca a se 
faire par la coulee de la Riviere-Blanche. De fortes vagues d'une 
sorte de boue noiratre surmontee d'une epaisse vapeur descendaient 
de la Montague, et l'apres-midi de ce jour, 1'Usine Guerin etait 
ensevelie sous l'une d'elles. 

Le lendemain 6 mai, l'eruption semblait entrer dans une periode 
d'accalmie, les vapeurs degagees du cratere ayant une moindre force 
ascensionnelle, de sorte que tous pensaient que l'eruption irait 
declinant, vu que la decharge se faisait normalement. 

Le 7 au matin, me trouvant a la rhumerie Berte, je causai avec 
le directeur du cable anglais (M. Miller) que m'apprit que toutes les 
communications telegraphiques entre la Martinique et les iles voisines 
etaient coupees. L'idee d'un cataclysme me traversa l'esprit, car le 
directeur du cable lui-meme attribuait ces ruptures de cables a des 
depressions sous-marines. 



324 APPENDIX 

Dans l'apres-midi, on entendit a Saint-Pierre, venant de la direc- 
tion sud, des detonations se succedant a de courts intervalles et pro- 
voquant des vibrations aeriennes faisant trembloter les bibelots situes 
aux etages. Le bruit courut alors que c'etait un navire qui s'exereait 
dans les eaux de Fort-de-France, chose d'autant plus croyable que le 
semaphore avait etfectivement signal e un navire de guerre dans le Sud. 

Pour nioi, je trouvai etrange la violence des commotions aeriennes. 

Ayant quitte Saint-Pierre le soir vers les cinq heures, j'assistai au 
spectacle suivant. D'enormes roches nettement visibles etaient pro- 
jetees en l'air par le cratere, a une hauteur considerable, si bien 
qu'elles mettaient environ un quart de minute a retomber, decrivant 
un arc les langant bien au dela du morne Lacroix, point culminant du 
massif. 

Vers les huit heures du soir, nous vimes pour la premiere fois au 
sommet du cratere des feux fixes d'une flamme tres blanche. Peu 
apres, quelques detonations semblables a celles entendues a Saint- 
Pierre, se produisirent, venant toujours du Sud, ce qui me confirma 
dans l'idee que j'avais deja de crateres sous-marins lancant des gaz 
detonant au contact de Fair. 

Dans la nuit du 7 au 8, m'etant couche vers les neuf heures, je 
me reveillai peu apres au milieu d'une chaleur suffocante et tout 
couvert de transpiration ; sachant mes nerfs agaces, je pensai a un 
malaise et me recouchai. 

Vers les onze heures trente-cinq je me reveillai a nouveau ayant 
senti une secousse de tremblement de terre, mais comme personne 
n'avait ete reveille chez moi, je crus encore avoir ete trompe par mes 
nerfs et me recouchai pour ne me relever que le matin a sept heures 
et demie. 

Mon premier regard a l'exterieur fut pour le cratere que je 
trouvai assez calme, les vapeurs se repliant tres vite sous la pression 
d'un vent d'Est. Vers les huit heures, etant encore a regarder le 
cratere, j'en vis sortir une petite vague, suivie deux secondes apres 
d'une nappe considerable qui mit moins de trois secondes a couvrir jusqiia 
la Pointe du Carbet, en meme temps qu'elle se trouvait deja a notre 



APPENDIX 325 

zenith, se developpant par consequent presque aussi vite en hauteur 
qu'en longueur. C'etaient des vapeurs en tout point semblables a 
celles lancees presque tout le temps par le cratere. D'un gris violet, 
elles paraissaient tres denses, ear bien que douees d'une force ascen- 
sionnelle inimaginable, elles conservaient jusqu'au zenith leurs som- 
mets arrondis. Au milieu de ce chaos de vapeurs petillaient 
d'innombrables etincelles electriques, en meme temps que les oreilles 
etaient assourdies par un fracas epouvantable. 

J'eus alors l'impression bien nette que Saint-Pierre avait ete 
pulverise, et je pleurai sur-le-champ tous les miens que j'y avais laisses 
la veille au soir. Comme le monstre semblait se rapprocher de nousi 
mes gens, pris de panique, se mirent a courir sur un petit morne 
dominant ma maison, me priant d'en faire autant. A ce moment un 
vent terrible d'aspiration se leva, arrachant les feuilles des arbres et 
cassant les petites branches, nous opposant meme une forte resistance 
a la course. A peine etions-nous arrives au sommet du mamelon que 
le soleil s'obscureit tout d'un coup, faisant place a une noirceur presque 
complete. Alors seulement, nous recumes des cailloux dont le plus 
gros mesurait environ 2 centimetres de diametre moyen, en meme 
temps que sur la ville de Saint-Pierre et dans la direction a peu pres 
ou je savais trouver le quartier du Mouillage, nous vimes une colonne 
de feu semblant animee d'un mouvement de translation et d'un autre 
mouvement de rotation, laquelle trombe de feu j'estime au moins a 
400 metres de hauteur. Ce phenomene dura de 2 a 3 minutes. Peu 
apres les pierres, une'pluie de boue s'abattit sur nous, couchant au ras 
du sol toutes les herbes et meme les petits arbustes, puis ce fut une 
pluie torrentielle durant environ un demi-heure. 

En tout le phenomene avait dure a peu pres une heure, apres quoi 
le soleil perca. 

La vague que je vis s'abattre sur Saint-Pierre devait etre com- 
posee d'une matiere liquide a une temperature considerable, lequel 
liquide a du se vaporiser au contact de Fair, non cependant d'une facon 
absolument instantanee, car je remarquai durant les deux secondes 
que mit la vague a couvnr la ville, comme une petite pointe a l'avant 



326 APPENDIX 

de ladite vague : c'est du reste la seule facon de s'expliquer le fait, car 
physiquement parlant, on ne pent guere concevoir un gaz doue de 
deux forces contraires, force de chute et force d'ascension. 

La foudre aussi a du contribuer a l'incendie, puisque, comme je 
l'ai dit plus haut, ces vapeurs etaient sillonnees d'etincelles electriques. 
De plus, par suite du degagement des gaz, il a du se produire un vide 
considerable sur la ville ; lequel vide aura asphyxie les individus qui 
s'etaient trouves dans des conditions particulieres pour ne pas etre 
atteints par la vague. Le vent d'aspiration que je ressentis au 
Parnasse, situe a 3 kilometres de Saint-Pierre a vol d'oiseau, a du 
donner le coup de grace en broyant absolument Saint-Pierre. 

Relativement a une pluie de feu dont on a beaucoup parle, je n'ai 
rien apercu de semblable, ayant cependant observe le phenomene dans 
son entier. Quant aux matieres volcaniques (cendres, boue et pierres) 
tombees a Fort-de-Prance et dans presque toute l'ile, elles ont du 
provenir d'une sorte de fusee lancee par le volcan quelques secondes 
apres la destruction de Saint-Pierre, car a aucun moment je n'ai vu 
l'eruption verticale ; les vapeurs qui s'etaient precipitees sur Saint- 
Pierre, ayant, dans l'espace de quelques secondes, couvert entierement 
la Martinique, en meme temps qu' elles se trouvaient deja au zenith. 

II s'agirait de savoir quelle a pu etre la nature de ces gaz._ Pour 
moi, je crois simplement a de l'eau chaude a une temperature excessive, 
car peu apres l'eruption j'ai pu sentir pendant un temps assez long 
une forte odeur de terre bouillie qui me conduisit immediatement a 
l'hypothese ci-dessus. 

POGER ARNOUX. 



APPENDIX 327 



METEOROLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE OBSERVATORY OF FORT-DE-FRANCE AT 
ABOUT THE TIME OF THE AUGUST 30 ERUPTION 

August 24. — Earthquake nine-twenty-five a.m. Oscillation north- 
west to southeast. Duration twenty seconds. 

August 25. — Eruption, visible at ten-twenty a.m. Numerous illu- 
minations resembling lightning. 

August 26. — Four distinct eruptions between five-thirty a.m. and 
seven-ten a.m. Clouds rise to four thousand metres. Glow on the 
first ascending clouds. 

August 28. — Bright illumination (lueurs) after ten-thirty p.m. 

August 29. — Distinct rumblings (grondements) between nine and 
ten p.m. 

August 30. — At one p.m. great flocculent volcanic cloud, of large 
dimensions, flowing from crater northwest to southeast, halted about 
half distance from crater to Fort-de-France, becoming dark gray in 
centre and turning to white on border. Between twelve-fifty and 
one-ten p.m. the barometer descends slightly with a V-nick of four 
millimetres and an opening of 20'. No electric manifestations. Sea 
calm. Violent eruption in evening comparable to May eruption. 
The projected cloud appears about nine p.m., and advances rapidly, 
almost to Fort-de-France. Electric manifestations remarkable, and 
much more intense than on July 9, although identical in character. 
Lightning more intense. Simultaneous scintillant and zigzag dis- 
charges, producing an uninterrupted crepitation, from time to time 
effaced by a great glow, which illumined all the clouds. Strong odor 
of ozone perceptible. There was a retreat of the sea at nine-twenty- 
five p.m., followed by a more rapid rise (about one metre), which 
covered the quais and came to the border of the savane. Barometer, 
which had been depressed three millimetres, rose four millimetres in a 
period often minutes. Light fall of ashes and small stones. 



328 



APPENDIX 



BAROMETER : 
Ten a.m. Four p.m. 
Millimetres. Millimetres. 
August 21, 762.6 760.8 

22, 761.4 760.1 

23, 762.0 760.3 

24, 762.8 761.8 

25, 762.6 760.4 

26, 762.8 ' 761.0 

27, 762.9 761.3 

28, 763.0 761.0 

29, 763.1 764.0 

30, 763.1 761.2 

31, 763.0 761.0 



Total rainfall for August, 215.8 millimetres. 




£J4bj(£j:cs, <£%, 



THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE 



NOTES 

1 (p. 17). The population of the commune of Saint Pierre was 
according to the same census (1894) 25,382 (Annuaire de Martinique). 
A less official census placed the population in 1901 at 26,500. 

2 (p. 24). The more distinct photographs show the time on the 
clock of the Hopital Militaire — the hour of the destruction of Saint 
Pierre — to be 7 h. 52 m., instead of 7 h. 50 m., as generally stated (8 h. 
2 m. time of Fort-de-France). 

3 (p. 35). The eruption of Asamayama is stated by Milne to have 
been "the most frightful eruption on record," the projectile force 
having been sufficient to throw out rocks from forty to eighty feet in 
some of their dimensions, and even to have cast out one rock meas- 
uring two hundred and sixty-four by one hundred and twenty feet 
(British Association Eeport, 1887). It is more than likely, judged by 
the character of the attending phenomena, that the accounts of some 
of the earlier eruptions, such as Papandayang, Asamayama, and 
especially Tomboro, are greatly exaggerated, and to a degree even 
fanciful. 

4 (p. 36). Flammarion, Bulletin de la Socie'te Astronomique de 
France, Jury, 1902, p. 300 ; Boyal Society Eeport. 

5 (p. 39). Bulletin de la Societe Astronomique de France, July and 
August, 1902. , 

6 (p. 42). See the interesting paper by Harold B. Dixon " On the 
Movements of the Flame in the Explosion of G-ases" (Proceedings 
Eoyal Society, September 20, 1902). 

7 (p. 46). A few of the inhabitants were taken from the city in 
a badly scorched condition, but with the exception of the prisoner 
Ciparis (or Cilbarice) and Compere-Leandre, concerning whom further 
details appear in Chapter YII, none of these seem to have survived 
their wounds. 

329 



330. NOTES 

8 (p. 51). A further discussion of the Pelee afterglows appears in 
Chapter XIX, " The Phenomena of the Eruption." 

9 (p. 53). The National Geographic Magazine, July, 1902 ; Cen- 
tury Magazine, September, 1902. 

10 (p. 67). Several of the older active points on the southwestern 
slope of Pelee passed under the name of " Soufriere" or " the 
Soufriere." That of the Etang Sec is not to be confounded with the 
one referred to by Leprieur, Peyraud and Rufz as one of the seats 
of the eruption of August, 1851. See Chapter XI, " The Geography 
of Mont Pelee." 

11 (p. 122). It seems to be a common belief that Pliny's letters 
to Tacitus narrating the Vesuvian eruption of 79 were written when 
the famous epistolarian was hardly more than a lad, less than 
eighteen years of age. Pliny was witness of the eruption when he 
was of this age, but the narration belongs to a much later period. 
Pliny's opening reference to Tacitus as one whose writings would 
confer immortality upon his own uncle, the elder Pliny, clearly estab- 
lishes this point, as Tacitus, at the time of the eruption, was him- 
self only about twenty-seven years of age, and had produced no work 
that would entitle him to special consideration as a fame bestower. 
It is more than likely that these letters were written nearly or quite 
twenty years after the event ; and this circumstance probably ex- 
plains why no direct reference is made in them to the destruction of 
Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

12 (p. 126). In Orrery's translation this passage appears : " em- 
barked with a design not only to relieve the people of Hetinaz" etc., 
the personal name Rectina being evidently confounded with Retina 
(also Rectina), the location on the Bay of Naples which closely 
corresponds in position with the modern Resina (near Hercula- 
neum). 

13 (p. 129). See Johnston-Lavis, " The Geology of Monte Somma 
and Vesuvius," in Quarterly Journal Geological Society of London, 
XL, pp. 35-112, 1884. The author says : " If the Plinian eruption 
had formed the greater part of the present Vesuvian cone, it must, 



NOTES 331 

besides the materials that cover Pompeii on the mountain slopes in 
that direction, have ejected sufficient also to form a cone twice the 
size of that of Vesuvius, to fill up the great crater, and upon the base 
of this another at least half the size of that now visible" (p. 38). If 
this is possible, there would seem to be no particular reason to 
assume that any cone — corresponding to the modern Vesuvius — ex- 
isted in 79, since a new one with full dimensions might have been 
built up at the base, or through the flank, of what already existed — ■ 
that corresponding to the Somma wall. We should then have the 
single summit which some think necessary to harmonize with the 
older descriptions of the volcano. 

14 (p. 136). See the discussion of this subject in Lyell's " Princi- 
ples of Geology." 

15 (p. 168). Journal des Mines, Paris, 1796, 3 (part xviii), p. 58. 

16 (p. 170). The map accompanying Labat's " Nouveau Voyage 
aux Isles de VAmerique" locates a lake {Lac des Palmistes f) on Mont 
Pelee. 

17 (p. 181). A further discussion of this relation is contained in 
Chapter XIX, "The Phenomena of the Eruption." 

18 (p. 183). Professor Lacroix, in the Comptes Rendus for No- 
vember 10, 1902, p. 772, states that the new fragmental cone now 
overtops the eastern rim of the crater (the southwestern border of 
the basin of the Lac des Palmistes) by fifty metres, and approaches 
the bounding wall to within about one hundred metres. The depth of 
the surrounding atrio is thought to be in places not more than one 
hundred and fifty metres. The upward growth of this cone has not 
been latterly so rapid as Professor Lacroix appears to believe, as my 
photograph taken on June 1 shows the summit to be but little below 
the crest of the volcano already at that time. Lacroix also makes the 
interesting statement that the cone appeared to be completely solid, 
and to have no central chimney (" entierement constitue par des roches 
solides . . . Ce cone n'a certainement pas de cheminee centrale; quand il 
y a peu de vent, toute les fumeroles qui sortent de ces flancs s'e'levent verti- 
calement et donnent Villusion d'un panache terminal 1 '). 



332 NOTES 

19 (p. 185). A further discussion of this subject appears in Chap- 
ter XIX, "The Phenomena of the Eruption." 

20 (p. 229). Pond and Percy Smith, in Transactions of the New 
Zealand Institute, 1886 (1887), XIX, p. 350. 

21 (p. 240). Humboldt, Cosmos, Bonn's Edition, V, (1872), p. 422. 
For a further discussion of this subject see Chapter XIX. 

22 (p. 248). " But a hurricane blast of steam charged with burn- 
ing dust did not sweep down from La Soufriere as it did from Mont 
Pelee" (Eussell, National Geographic Magazine, Jul}-, 1902, p. 275). 
This statement is perhaps not fully in accord with the observations 
of some other investigators. The dominant feature of the Soufriere 
eruption, as described by Tempest Anderson and J. S. Flett, repre- 
senting the special Commission of the Boyal Society, seems to have 
been most strikingly similar to that of the eruption of Pelee. " Those 
who were in the open air saw a dense black cloud rolling with terrific 
velocity down the mountain. . . . The cloud was seen to roll down 
upon the sea, and was described to us as flashing with lightning, espe- 
cially when it touched the water. All state that it was intensely hot, 
smelt strongly of sulphur, and was suffocating. They felt as if some- 
thing was compressing their throats, and as if there was no air to 
breathe. There was no fire in the ordinary sense of the word, only 
the air was itself hot and was charged with hot dust." (Proceedings 
Eoyal Society, London, August 22, 1902, p. 428.) 

23 (p. 256). A further discussion of this subject appears in Chap- 
ter XIX, " The Phenomena of the Eruption." 

24- (p. 260). For a discussion of the relations existing between the 
Sierra Merida and other continental mountain chains see Suess : " Das 
Antlitz der Erde" 1, pp. 700 et seq. 

25 (p. 263). " Les Manifestations volcaniques et sismiques dans le 
groupe des Antilles" (Revue Generale des Sciences, July 30, 1902). 



INDEX 



Afterglows, 50, 255, 301-305 
Ajoupa-Bouillon, 192, 213, 219; 

partial destruction of, 232 
Antilles, Lesser. See Lesser An- 
tilles 
Ash, volcanic, distribution of, 50, 

288 
Assier, journey to, 140-150 
Atmospheric disturbance, 294 

Basse-Pointe, overflow at, 78, 104, 

174 
Blast, destroying, nature of, 311 
Bourdon, Heights of, 232 

Cable, breaking of, 54-56 

Calebasse, the, 213, 236 

Capot, the, 157, 174 

Carbet, 46, 47, 107 

Carbet, Pitons of, 10 

Caribbean Region, disturbances 
in, 58; volcanic relations of, 
257-270 ; a region of break- 
ages and subsidences, 258- 
262 ; earth movements in, 
263-265 

Ciparis, Auguste, prisoner of Saint 
Pierre, 116 

Destroying blast, nature of, 311 
Dion Cassius, account of Vesuvian 
eruption, 124 



Earthquake in Fort-de-France, 
210 

Electric illumination, 231-234, 
251-252, 291-294 

Eruptions of May 8, 35-59 ; dust- 
distribution, 49 ; afterglows, 
50 ; intensity of sound, 239 ; 
force of, 278 ; electric illu- 
mination, 291 ; magnetic dis- 
turbance caused by, 298 ; 
earth pulsation, 310 ; atmos- 
jDheric disturbance, 310 

Etang Sec, 38 ; boiling up, 63 ; 
breaking of barrier, 69 ; seat 
of the eruption of May 8, 
271 

Falaise, the, 157 ; supposed crater 

of, 213 
Fonds-Core, 20, 116 
Fonds-Saint-Denis, 107 
Force of eruption, 278 
Fort-de-France, 2-6 ; earthquake 

in, August 24, 210 

Grande-Anse, 146 
Grande-Riviere, 208, 225 

Herculaneum, 36 ; destruction of, 
compared with that of Saint 
Pierre, 121-139 

333 



334 



INDEX 



Hovey, E. O., on Pelee's crater, 
178 ; on Soufriere's crater, 
245 

Kennan, George, interview with 
prisoner of Saint Pierre, 117 ; 
on the nature of explosive 
blast, 316 

Krakatoa, eruption of, 35—36 

Lac des Palmistes, 38, 153, 160, 
169-172 

Lamentin, 142 

Landes, Professor, interview with, 
74 

Les Colonies, articles in, 61 et seq 

Lesser Antilles, geographic rela- 
tions of, 257-270 ; volcanoes 
of, 261-263; broad extent of 
seismic and volcanic disturb- 
ance, 265-270 

Leyritz, Habitation, 216, 225. 

Lhuerre, Acting Governor, his 
official report, 109-112 

Lorrain, 79 

Macouba, 208, 225 

Magnetic disturbances, 298 

Martinique, characters of, 8-15 ; 
area, 11 ; population, 12 ; cul- 
tivation of cane in, 13 ; ab- 
sence of railroads, 14 

Mary, Pere, 104, 107, 189-196; 
death of, 195, 241 



Morne Balai, 217 ; partial destruc- 
tion of, 231 

Morne Capot, 232 

Morne de La Croix, 38, 161, 168; 
destruction of, 172. 

Morne d'Orange, 29, 116 

Morne Eouge, 20-21, 189-196; 
annihilation of, 195, 232 ; loss 
of life in, 241 

Noise of eruption, 305 

Parel, Vicar-General, his chroni- 
cle, 85-108 

Pelee, eruption of, May 8, 35-59 ; 
of May 20, 105 ; eruption of, 
compared with that of Vesu- 
vius in year 79, 121, 139 ; as- 
cents of, May 31 and June 
1, 151-165; crater of, 162- 
165 ; geography of, 166 etseq.; 
height of, 168 ; crater of, 
176-180 ; eruption of, June 
6, 197 et seq. ; unsuccessful 
effort to ascend, 210 ; ascent 
of, August 30, 216; electric 
displajr of, 229 ; eruption of, 
August 30, 231-243 ; sympa- 
thetic relation with Soufriere, 
251-252 

Phenomena of eruption dis- 
cussed, 271-318 

Pliny, account of Vesuvian erup- 
tion, 121 et seq. 



INDEX 



335 



Pompeii, 36 ; destruction of, com- 
pared with that of Saint 
Pierre, 121-139 

JPouyer-Quertier, report of officers 
of, on eruption of June 6, 
200 

Precheur, 91, 103, 174; ruins of, 
204-207 ; conditions in, in 
early May, 205 

Precheur River, 77 

Procureur of Martinique, report 
of, 111-116 

Riviere Blanche, 6Q, 69, 88-89, 

175, 201, 203 
Riviere-des-Peres, 20, 78, 175, 211 
Riviere Seche, 175, 211 
Roxelane, the, 20, 78, 175 

Sainte-Philomene, 47, 103, 116 
Saint Pierre, 15-34 ; ruins of, 21- 
34; objects found in, 25-27; 
ash-covering of, 33 ; destruc- 
tion of, 37-49, 82; days of 
fear and trembling in, 60-72 ; 
last day of, 73-84; annihila- 
tion, 82 ; number of killed, 
83; burning of, 109-120; pri- 
soner of, 116 ; destruction of, 
compared with that of Pom- 
peii, 121-139 



Shock of eruption, 305 

Soufriere, the, 244 et seq. ; craters 
of, 245 ; height of, 246 ; erup- 
tion of, May 7, 247-351; 
eruption of September 3-4, 
251-254; of October 16, 
270 



Tarawera, electric afterglows of, 

229 
Ti-Bolhommes, the, 212 
Trianon, assumed crater of the, 

213, 214 
Trinite, 145 



Usine Guerin, 69, 88 

Vesuvius, eruption of year 79 
compared with that of Pelee, 
121-139 ; assumed decapita- 
tion of, 128 ; ancient form of, 
131 

Vive, 150, 233 

Volcanic relations of the Carib- 
bean Basin, 257-270 

Volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles, 
261-263 

Wind, volcanic, 52 




MAP OF THE NORTHERN PART OF MARTINIQUE 
Showing approximate areas of destruction 

The oblique shading: Zone of destruction determined by the May eruptions, with the region 

of absolute annihilation shaded dark 
Dotted shading: Extension of field due to the eruption of August 30 
Scale of distances in kilometres 



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